Apple's Greg Joswiak blames iOS 8.0.1 issues on software distribution
In a rare interview on Tuesday, Apple VP of iPhone, iPod, and iOS Product marketing Greg "Joz" Joswiak mostly toed the company line, but did reveal that issues with last month's iOS 8.0.1 rollout were caused by software distribution issues.
At Re/code's Code/Mobile conference, Greg Joswiak said the botched iOS 8.0.1 release had nothing to do with the update's contents, but instead how it was "wrapped" before being pushed out to users. He rebuffed suggestions that Apple has quality control issues.
"It had to do with the way the software was being sent over servers. It was the way software was being distributed," Joswiak said. "Whenever you're pushing software and doing some very advanced things, you're going to have some mistakes. What we try to do is very quickly fix them."
As for Apple's response, Joswiak noted the company reacted within one hour of discovering the bug, which entailed pulling the update meant to solve problems with HealthKit, Photos, Reachability and more.
Shortly after iOS 8.0.1 was pushed out in late September, reports from iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners claimed the update disabled cellular connectivity and the Touch ID home button, rendering their new devices useless. Apple subsequently launched an update for the update the next day, which according to Joswiak's comments today was simply repackaged version of iOS 8.0.1.
Joswiak remained cagey throughout the interview, revealing little in the way of new information or statistics. He did mention that the multi-carrier Apple SIM introduced with the latest iPad models is not likely to see use in near future iPhones, an unsurprising move considering the handset's importance to Apple's bottom line.
Finally, the Apple exec offered some commentary on the ongoing Apple Pay situation, which has seen major retailers that are part of the Merchant Customer Exchange consortium pull support in lieu of launching their own branded service called CurrentC.
"We think the retailers who are going to be successful are going to work around their customers and accept the payment customers want to use," Joswiak said.
At Re/code's Code/Mobile conference, Greg Joswiak said the botched iOS 8.0.1 release had nothing to do with the update's contents, but instead how it was "wrapped" before being pushed out to users. He rebuffed suggestions that Apple has quality control issues.
"It had to do with the way the software was being sent over servers. It was the way software was being distributed," Joswiak said. "Whenever you're pushing software and doing some very advanced things, you're going to have some mistakes. What we try to do is very quickly fix them."
As for Apple's response, Joswiak noted the company reacted within one hour of discovering the bug, which entailed pulling the update meant to solve problems with HealthKit, Photos, Reachability and more.
Shortly after iOS 8.0.1 was pushed out in late September, reports from iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners claimed the update disabled cellular connectivity and the Touch ID home button, rendering their new devices useless. Apple subsequently launched an update for the update the next day, which according to Joswiak's comments today was simply repackaged version of iOS 8.0.1.
Joswiak remained cagey throughout the interview, revealing little in the way of new information or statistics. He did mention that the multi-carrier Apple SIM introduced with the latest iPad models is not likely to see use in near future iPhones, an unsurprising move considering the handset's importance to Apple's bottom line.
Finally, the Apple exec offered some commentary on the ongoing Apple Pay situation, which has seen major retailers that are part of the Merchant Customer Exchange consortium pull support in lieu of launching their own branded service called CurrentC.
"We think the retailers who are going to be successful are going to work around their customers and accept the payment customers want to use," Joswiak said.
Comments
Joswiak still sounds to me like an invented name that is a combination of 'Jobs' and 'Wozniak'.
@inafried to Apple VP Joswiak "I notice you're wearing a watch. Seems to have great battery life but no apps." Ha! #codemobile
2:03 PM - 28 Oct 2014
Users who manually downloaded 8.0.1 to update their device via iTunes didn't experience a problem?
This has been reported to be the first time Apple distributed software using its own Internet infrastructure rather than, say, Akamai's.
Glad to know it wasn't a problem of Apple's doing! Apple QC is just fine.
Double-post
Inquiring minds want to know.
It's not "towed" is it? It's "Toed" the company line.
You are correct!
Users who manually downloaded 8.0.1 to update their device via iTunes didn't experience a problem?
This has been reported to be the first time Apple distributed software using its own Internet infrastructure rather than, say, Akamai's.
Glad to know it wasn't a problem of Apple's doing! Apple QC is just fine.
i know you're being snide, but the obvious point he's making was the issue was not related to the QC group that tested the software content itself...unlike what the rumor sites suggested by posting the QC manager's name.
Indeed. The phrase is “toed the line”.
It's not "towed" is it? It's "Toed" the company line.
How dare you knoe English?!? ;-)
iOS 8 has been shtt....WiFi connection sucks. Try this: connect to your home network with your iOS 8.1 devices, start walking away from the router until your iOS devices get only 2 bars connections strength, disconnect the WiFi and try to reconnect it: your devices will ask for WiFi password and once you enter the password, it won't connect saying that it's wrong password. If you have only 1 bar strength network, you won't be able to connect it...this is' iOS 8.1 issue.
Mine's fine, maybe it's your router.
This makes sense as the issue seemed to be related to OTA.
Mine's fine, maybe it's your router.
Same. Mine has no issues connecting to different routers. Asus N600, Linksys WRT54G, other routers, all fine.
I saw a lot of workarounds on various forums regarding slow performance with 8.1 on older iPads. Erasing everything on the iPad and then restoring seemed to fix many slowdown issues. I wonder why Apple doesn't recommend this step. It's like having a Combo update and the delta updates online at the same time. Most people don't know the difference or why you'd want to download the larger Combo updater. Seems like some of these issues could be resolved if Apple were more clear.
Not sure if I buy this guy's explanation about 8.0.1 being wrapped incorrectly but I'm not a software engineer.
Dude, if he speaks gooder English then he has a responsibility to make things righter.