Apple has adjusted its operating system development schedule for iOS 28, iPadOS 28 (internally "Bell"), and macOS 28 ("Poppy"), according to Mark Gurman's Bloomberg "Power On" newsletter. The change affects the first major milestone (M1) of the annual cycle.
Previously, each eight-week milestone split evenly: four weeks of coding and feature development followed by four weeks of convergence — integrating new features into the OS. For M1, Apple shifted to six weeks of coding and just two weeks of convergence.
Engineers reportedly favor the change because it allows more creative exploration before locking down features. Early milestones don't yet carry the integration burden of later stages, so reducing convergence time there makes sense. The hope is that extra development time improves overall feature quality.
Source: AppleInsider · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing