[selykg]

Several downsides

Say the iOS update has brand new features. Your app can't take advantage of those fancy new features and your users don't get them until next week either.

Possible marketing, usually Apple has categories in the App Store for apps that support the latest features or are ready for that iOS version. They could in theory do this next week I guess, but point is there's excitement today, and will be less next week.

Possible bugs in your current app that aren't fixed but exist only in the latest iOS. If you base your entire process on past experience you planned to release bug fixes for iOS 14 with a larger update and now those updates aren't available to a majority of your userbase.

Edit: removed a part that was inaccurate.

[zepto]

The first point doesn’t make sense to me at all. No particular date was set for when users would be able to install apps with the new features.

Point two seems weak. The idea that Apple won’t promote apps with the new features when they are released makes no sense at all. You make it sound like this is unlikely, but I don’t see why you’d think that.

As for excitement - what excitement are we talking about? Users will get app updates automatically as they become available.

Are you suggesting that users typically buy a whole load of new apps on the one day iOS updates ship, but only if those apps have features only supported by the new OS? That would be an interesting fact if true, but it would also be supported by data, which I don’t see anywhere.

I’d speculate that users more often look for new apps when they get a new phone - which is supported by the data on Christmas app installs, and isn’t affected by this.

So we’re left with the possibility that the developer has bugs in the last iOS 13 version of their app that did not manifest under Beta 8, but do manifest under the GM.

I agree this is not impossible, although very unlikely to affect all but the tiniest handful of apps. Beta 8 and GM are unlikely to have significant changes of the kind that might expose such bugs, but again I agree it’s not impossible.

This seems like an extremely exotic case, and certainly in no way justifies Apple being called an ‘Asshole’, except by someone who has other reasons for wanting to malign them.

[selykg]

> No particular date was set for when users would be able to install apps with the new features.

The expectation is that apps will support the new features on day one. Because that's how it has worked in the past.

> what excitement are we talking about? Users will get app updates automatically as they become available.

Again, historically, apps support the new features on day one. That won't be the case with this release because there's no way an App developer will be able to ship an app to App Store review in 24 hours and have the app available the same day.

> Are you suggesting that users typically buy a whole load of new apps on the one day iOS updates ship, but only if those apps have features only supported by the new OS?

I'm not so sure about buying new apps, I am saying that typically existing apps get updates that take advantage of new features and those are typically available on day one of an iOS update and won't be this year.

I don't think iOS 14 has any major game changing features, so I don't think we'll see a massive buy in of new apps or anything. But if this trend happens again with a release that DOES have major new features then it's a big disappointment.

> So we’re left with the possibility that the developer has bugs in the last iOS 13 version of their app that did not manifest under Beta 8, but do manifest under the GM.

Keep in mind that developers on iOS tend to think in terms of larger updates. So an app developer may release a new major version on the same day as iOS 14, or iOS 13, etc.

These are typically 'free' updates for existing users, but they're whole version updates and come with a larger set of changes.

In the past, developers had time to prepare for release. If bugs existed in version 3 of their app running on the iOS beta, they probably fixed those in version 4 (unreleased) of their app, and planned to submit and ship version 4 the same day as iOS 14. That entire process is not going to happen this year, so it's possible that bugs existing in iOS 14, but did not exist in 13, will be present in apps until those updates ship next week sometime.

Edit:

>and certainly in no way justifies Apple being called an ‘Asshole’

I'm not calling Apple an asshole, I'm not defending the author of the article who is calling them an asshole. I'm simply explaining how it worked when I worked on a major top 50 app in the App Store. Thank god I'm not doing it anymore, it was stressful enough doing it in previous years, it's probably even worse today.

[zepto]

Ok - so it sounds like it’s actually not really a problem at all this time around, but if there had been game changing features it might have been?

My guess is that Apple would have taken this into account when scheduling the release.

If there was some marquee feature where day 1 support was important, this would have been part of Apple’s planning.

It’s clear to me that this is really not a big deal at all and that the original author - not you - is trying to manufacture outrage where none is merited.

It’s also not clear to me that any significant end users would have reason to expect most apps to be updated on day 1.

Apps have simply never adopted all the new features they could, day 1 or not. Often adoption has been gradual. Even things that are very obvious like screen size changes sometimes have taken months to be supported.

[selykg]

I wouldn't say it's not a big deal. It could very well be a big deal to them.

Is it the end of the world? No, I don't think so, but it is very clearly causing a lot of developers pains today, you should at the very least acknowledge that and understand that just because you can shrug it off doesn't mean they can.

Something that is severely missing from the world of software, and I suspect engineering in general, is empathy. Hell, it's missing from the world today. Look at the political climate in the US for another big example.

So maybe that's what your takeaway should be, show a little empathy to those who are struggling today and understand that. On top of a global pandemic, on top of possibly having their kids at home and being home schooled or learning virtually, having maybe lost a loved one, maybe even had to abandon their home due to fires, that on top of any or all of that they now have to deal with the pains of an iOS release with no warning. Empathy. Try it.

[zepto]

So what word would be good to describe your behavior in writing a long screed that accuses me of lacking empathy? Covid! Fires! Loved ones! US Politics! Oh my! Is this you giving a demonstration of empathy for me?

I have plenty of empathy if developers are actually facing pain. Piling on to attack Apple, not so much. Apple employees also have families and many of them are in California too. I’m guessing they too are affected by all of these issues.

If the original author was able to articulate the pain they are facing, I’d have empathy for them.

They didn’t in fact do so, which is why we’re trying to figure out what the negative impacts would be.

It’s absurd also to suggest that there was an iOS release with no warning. That is simply not true. We’ve been expecting it for months, and we also knew the release schedule would be different this year.

If people are being pressured by managers in some painful way, then I do feel for them, but if that pressure is occurring because managers actually have a false understanding of what is at stake, then it is more empathetic to discuss the misunderstandings about this than it is to just nod along.

It’s really not clear at all what pain anyone should be feeling.

Presumably their apps are ready to go, and all they have to do is submit them and wait.

As we’ve already discussed, almost nobody should be actually discovering bugs now, regardless of Apple’s scheduling.

[saagarjha]

Everyone knew iOS was coming out sometime soon. Nobody knew that Apple would drop the actual update the day after the Golden Master. They had absolutely no reason to. The fact that this went out, and that Apple themselves were unable to ship their own software on time to support this release, is an extremely annoying move. You sitting there and saying there "should" be no bugs is nice but not indicative at all of reality, where Apple changes their software and ships new bugs in the GM itself.

[saagarjha]

Apple is currently running a section in the App Store for new apps to try on iOS 14. They’re going to get rid of it soon, and if you didn’t update in time to appear there…tough luck I guess?

[zepto]

How soon? My guess is it will still be there when the iPhone 12 arrives.