Apple Could Release iOS 9 Public Beta

Ordinary iPhone and iPad users will reportedly be able to test iOS 8.3 and iOS 9 ahead of their commercial launches later this year.

This development comes as Apple seeks to ensure future updates are more reliable than previous iterations of the mobile operating system.

Apple has never made iOS available as a public beta before, instead preferring to test new versions with its developer community. But 9to5mac claims Apple has been encouraged by the success of the Mac OS X Yosemite beta and is keen to avoid the problems that afflicted the launch of iOS 8 by expanded the number of testers.

A public beta would do much to reduce demand for unauthorised sales of beta downloads from developer accounts, a black market Apple wants to clamp down on.

iOS 9 beta plans

The most recent update to iOS was version 8.1.3. iOS 8.2 has been available to developers since last year and 8.3 was made available in February, adding support for Wireless CarPlay, an upgraded Emoji keyboard, better voice in Siri and a simpler log-in for Google services.

Apple has already started releasing betas of new software to a number of retail employees for minor releases since January and the apparent plan is for iOS 8.3 to be made available as a public beta through the existing Apple Seed programme in mid-March. The programme will be limited to 100,000 users in order to maintain exclusivity.

The Cupertino-based company is also reportedly working on iOS 8.4, which is set to add Apple’s long-awaited music streaming service, and will unveil iOS 9 at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June before launching a public beta in the summer.

iOS 8 was released last September without the highly-publicised Health app due to problems with the Healthkit developer framework. Other users complained of cellular problems and a loss of TouchID functionality, with a number of updates released shortly after the launch to fix a myriad of problems.

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