Manager in charge of quality control for iOS 8.0.1 also oversaw launch of Apple Maps
So, who’s responsible for Apple’s botched iOS 8.0.1 update?
According to a new report by Bloomberg, it’s Josh Williams, who is in charge of quality assurance for iOS. Interestingly, he was also linked to the quality (or lack thereof) of Apple’s much maligned Maps app debut in iOS 6.
“Josh Williams, the mid-level manager overseeing quality assurance for Apple’s iOS mobile-software group, was also in charge of quality control for maps, according to people familiar with Apple’s management structure,” Bloomberg reports.
If you’ll recall, the Apple Maps controversy of 2012 led to the firing of Scott Forstall, Apple’s then chief of mobile software, and Richard Williamson, who was in charge of the mapping software whose release was marred by inaccurate information.
Williams, who had long been working on iPhone software quality control, was also removed, but only from the Maps team and not from the company altogether. According to one of Bloomberg sources, he remained in charge of testing for iOS.
Testing for iOS, of course, includes quality assurance for updates, even minor ones, to the mobile operating system. But quality control clearly failed with the release of iOS 8.0.1 yesterday.
The update was supposed to bring improvements and bug fixes, especially a fix for a bug that had been deterring the release of HealthKit-compatible apps on the App Store. But it was found to affect cellular network connectivity and Touch ID on the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus.
A probable cause of the function degradation that came with iOS 8.0.1 is that the recently released smartphones hadn’t been tested long enough to spot critical issues. As reported by Bloomberg, “the engineers who test the newest software versions often don’t get their hands on the latest iPhones until the same time that they arrive with customers, resulting in updates that may not get tested as much on the latest handsets.”
Williams’ team is also said to rely more on manual bug detection than automated testing.
Just moments ago, Apple released iOS 8.0.2 as a replacement of and a fix for iOS 8.0.1, which, according to the company, affected fewer than 40,000 out of the more than 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units that it had sold.
