Apple

Breaking: Apple iOS 15 Beta 8 released ahead of Launch

Published

3 years ago

September 2, 2021

Version rapidly approaches Golden Master ahead of possible September iPhone 13 release event

Today those participating in the iOS 15 public beta program are able to update (again), this time to beta 8. This beta process is a “live” test of all the new features, indeed when participating in the program many features change and evolve and, of course, bugs are not infrequent.

As we get nearer and nearer to the launch of this year’s iPhone model, apparently to be dubbed “iPhone 13” the iOS 15 beta versions become more stable and eventually, usually coinciding with the event where the new iPhone model is announced, the Golden Master is reached – which becomes the first public release version.

The first iteration of the public release is often short lived, as the beta test phase almost never gets rid of all the bugs and various features and security patches and other urgent updates are often needed.

For this reason the 2nd or third public release is often the one many experts recommend for those upgrading.

Naturally, though the new phone models will be shipped with iOS 15 already installed, once the phones actually ship of course, which can vary in delay from the launch / announcement at the upcoming September event.

Nevertheless, most older iPhones will benefit from this upgrade, more than a little, and once the release is public a free upgrade will be available to the more than 1 billion users already in possession of an iPhone from previous releases.

Stats from backlinko.com:

More than 1 billion consumers currently use iPhones.
Since its initial launch, more than 1.9 billion iPhones have been sold.
Apple shipped 206.1 million iPhones in 2020.
iPhones have a 65% share of smartphone sales in the US.
6 of the top 10 most sold smartphone models in January 2021 were designed by Apple.