Apple kills a little iOS freedom, says it was temporary

For lots of people iOS 14’s widgets was quite enough change

I find this decision a little inconsistent, as it seems to remove a feature that was very well received when it was first spotted: Apple no longer lets us install the latest security patches to iOS 14 without updating to iOS 15.

Just seems pretty inconsistent

When iOS 15 was first introduced Apple revealed a new control which meant people could stay with iOS 14 if they preferred. If they chose to stay with the old system they would be provided with security updates the company usually makes available to older devices.

In other words, Apple has always released security updats for older devices running an older version of iOS, but for a while it also agreed to let you stick with an old OS on a new device.

Just because your device ran iOS 15 didn’t mean you had to upgrade to it to receive the latest security patch. This was a good thing.

With iOS 15.2.1 Apple took this good thing away.

Perhaps it didn’t explain itself well

The thing is, I can recall it being announced as a feature.

I can even recall writing about this and saying how useful it should be for enterprise users who want to secure their fleets but also want to test operating systems for compliance.

Not to mention that this tool also put users in much more control of when they wanted to upgrade to the OS.

What makes this strange is that the company is now telling Ars Technica that the option was always intended to be temporary. The company even points to a support page that references iOS 14 receiving updates for “a period of time”. The idea was that people would be given a little breathing space while Apple worked out any system bugs once the OS shipped.

At best it appears the company failed to make itself particularly clear.

What makes this a little weird is that Apple supports the previous two versions of macOS with security patches, so it makes little sense to me that it declines to do the same with its mobile devices.

Though perhaps the company really does want everyone to upgrade to iOS 15, despite its flaws.

Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.