Apple contacted various publications yesterday afternoon to help spread the word that watchOS 2 would be delayed. The much anticipated software update to the Apple Watch was supposed to have been available for download yesterday but the company found a significant bug at the last minute. After publicly announcing yesterday’s release date over a week ago, the issue must have been severe and difficult to solve quickly. There is no timetable for the update at this point other than Apple saying it would be available “shortly,” which in Apple parlance could mean anything.
We have played around with what was supposed to be the shipping version of watchOS 2 and it felt stable and quick. But once software rolled out for the new watchOS on the App Store, we were not able to launch any of the updated apps. It would get stuck launching and then crash back to the home screen. While not everyone was experiencing this, a quick browse of web forums showed we were not alone. Rumor is, that was the reason behind the delayed launch. Additionally, we found a couple of random oddities, the largest being a glitch that caused the calendar to erase and re-sync constantly for a few minutes (decimating the battery life). But that only happened once.
While it might seem odd that Apple is releasing a 2.0 update to its watch’s software less than 5 months after the device launched, I believe there is a lot more to the story. Despite what the company’s PR department might say, it is no secret that Apple struggled to get the Apple Watch out in a timely matter. WatchOS 1 that shipped with the device was not the operating system that was meant to be released with it. Features and abilities were pulled from the Watch at the last minute to meet timelines. Watch OS 2 afforded Apple a few extra months to get those features working correctly and then add them back in. For example, Apple showed off the Time-lapse and Photos watch faces last September but those watch faces are only now appearing in the 2.0 update. While watchOS is a significant update, I believe that Apple Watch users are only now about to receive the device Apple originally planned to ship.
