Apple, Inc. (AAPL) launched iOS 9 for existing devices last Friday (Sept. 16). Now with the launch of the ninth generation flagship iPhone 6S and 6S+ smartphones prepping for a Friday launch, Apple has rolled out its first set of patches for iOS 9, iOS 9.0.1.
It’s worth noting this appears to be earliest in its smartphone release cycle that Apple has released a patch. Last year Apple made iOS 8 available for existing devices just two days before the Sept. 19 launch of the iPhone 6 and 6+. A week later it had already released the iOS 8.0.1 set of patches — which was considered quite an early update at the time.
The first two iPhones were accompanied by iOS version introductions on the same day. But since then it’s been more unpredictable as international support demands and the overall size of the userbase have grown (not to mention the complexity and capabilities of the OS itself and the hardware). The availability of iOS 5 for older devices, in fact came a day after the release of the iPhone 4S.
As a general rule of thumb, though, the availability for older devices came two days prior to the release of the new device.
So why the change? Well, iOS 7.0 and 8.0 were to some degree exercises in chaos, introducing a number of bugs in older devices. Likewise iOS 7.0.1 and 8.0.1 were rather chaotic releases, too, both of which required yet another emergency patch (iOS 7.0.2 and 8.0.2) just a day later.
This time around Apple is releasing its OS update earlier to older devices, possibly in hopes of catching serious bugs sooner. It’s a seemingly clever strategy. Today’s release, iOS 9.0.1 brings general battery life improvements and stability fixes. It also brings several bug fixes:
For older devices iOS 9.0’s biggest features include seriously overhauled Search and Siri subsystems. Perhaps the starkest change, though, is observed on the iPad, which now features snappable split screen multi-tasking, similar to that of Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Windows 10. (Some Android tablets and phablets also features snappable split screen multitasking, as well).
[Image Source: LifeHacker]
iOS 9.1 will reportedly bring new emojis (a source of past controversy for Apple) and will help the new and improved Siri better learn the voices of individual users. The rest will likely be bug improvements, although thus far iOS 9 does not appear to be suffering as many hiccups as 7 and 8 did.
As an added bonus here’s a timeline of the iOS releases (iOS X.0, X.0.X) up to the first major revision (iOS X.1), and how they lined up with the release of that generation’s iPhone, chronologically.
- 2007
- June 29 ·iOS 1.0 ·iPhone (1st gen) availability
- July 31 ·iOS 1.0.1
- Aug. 21 ·iOS 1.0.2
- Sep. 14 ·iOS 1.1
- 2008
- July 11 ·iOS 2.0 ·iPhone 3G availability
- Aug. 04 ·iOS 2.0.1
- Aug. 18 ·iOS 2.0.2
- Sep. 09 ·iOS 2.1
- 2009
- June 17 ·iOS 3.0
- June 19 ·iPhone 3GS availability
- July 31 ·iOS 3.0.1
- Sep. 09 ·iOS 3.1
- 2010
- June 21 ·iOS 4.0
- June 24 ·iPhone 4 availability
- July 15 ·iOS 4.0.1
- Aug. 11 ·iOS 4.0.2
- Sep. 08 ·iOS 4.1
- 2011
- Oct. 14 ·iPhone 4S availability
- Oct. 15, 2011 ·iOS 5.0
- Nov. 10, 2011 ·iOS 5.0.1
- Mar. 07, 2012 ·iOS 5.1
- 2012
- Sep. 19, 2012 ·iOS 6.0
- Sep. 21 ·iPhone 5 availability
- Nov. 01, 2012 ·iOS 6.0.1
- Dec. 18, 2012 ·iOS 6.0.2
- Jan. 28, 2013 ·iOS 6.1
- 2013
- Sep. 18, 2013 ·iOS 7.0
- Sep. 19, 2013 ·iOS 7.0.1 (fixes TouchID bugs)
- Sep. 20, 2013 ·iPhone 5S/5C availability
- Sep. 26, 2013 ·iOS 7.0.2 (fixes locksreen bypass)
- Oct. 22, 2013 ·iOS 7.0.3
- Nov. 14, 2013 ·iOS 7.0.4
- Jan. 29, 2014 ·iOS 7.0.5
- Feb. 26, 2014 ·iOS 7.0.6
- Mar. 10, 2014 ·iOS 7.1
- 2014
- Sep. 17, 2014 ·iOS 8.0
- Sep. 19 ·iPhone 6/6+ availability
- Sep. 24, 2014 ·iOS 8.0.1
- Sep. 25, 2014 ·iOS 8.0.2
- Oct. 20, 2014 ·iOS 8.1
- 2015
- Sep. 16, 2014 ·iOS 9.0
- Sep. 23, 2014 ·iOS 9.0.1
- Sep. 25 ·iPhone 6S/6S+ availability
Timeline Sources:
[iOS 1.0-1.1][iOS 2.0-2.1][iOS 3.0-3.1][iOS 4.0-4.1][iOS 5.0-5.1][iOS 6.0-6.1]
[iOS 7.0-7.1][iOS 8.0-8.1][iOS 9.0-9.0.1]
[additional source: iOS 7.0-9.0][additional source: iOS 7.0-9.0]