In a rare move, Apple Inc. hit pause on development of coming time’s software updates for the iPhone, iPad, Mac and other devices so that it could root out glitches in the code.

In recent times, Apple has put further emphasis on quality — even when it means delaying new capabilities. In 2018, software engineering chief Craig Federighi pushed back several unreleased iPhone features until the ensuing time amid enterprises that the software was too buggy.

In 2019, he overtook the way Apple develops software in a fresh attempt to stave off problems. Under the approach, each point has to be enabled manually through a process dubbed ‘feature flags’ — allowing employee testers to segregate the impact on the overall system before adding it. That time, he also took on what came to be known at Apple as ‘The Pact’.

The agreement tells employees to no way willfully allow ‘regression’ – when software that formerly worked stops working appropriately – and to instantly fix miscalculations.

Federighi’s policies have helped Apple software releases have had minor glitches in recent times, and lesser features have had to be delayed.

But the latest round of development has not gone so effortlessly. When looking at new operating systems to be released the following year, the software engineering operation team set up a lot of ‘escapes’– an industry term for bugs missed during internal testing. So the department took the unusual step of halting all new feature development for a week to fix bugs.

Due to thousands of different Apple employees working on a variety of operating systems and devices – which need to work together seamlessly – it’s easy for glitches to arise.

Last month, the company completed the first interpretation of its coming iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems.

That replication is known as M1 because it's the first major milestone. The iPhone and iPad software that will become iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 has been internally dubbed ‘Crystal’. The Mac software, macOS 15, is called ‘gleam’.

Apple delayed the launch of work on the release of the second milestone, known as M2. The ban also applies to the coming Apple Watch operating system — watchOS 11, called ‘Moonstone’ — as well as the current iOS 17 update, called iOS17.4.

That software, used by the iPhone and iPad, is awaited to be released around coming March.

The move also impacts unborn versions of VisionOS, the software for Apple’s Vision Pro headset, which is due out beforehand. However, at this point, development holdups are doubtful to postpone the actual consumer release. Apple is lifting the hold this week.

Apple generally launches its major software overhauls each September, after previewing them to developers and consumers at its June conference. For the following time, the company plans to concentrate on integrating generative AI into its products.