A complete overhaul of Apple’s iOS operating system could delay its rollout until later in the year. Bloomberg reports that the decision to instigate such a radical redesign – the first in the history of iOS – comes from Apple’s former hardware design chief and current software guru Jonathan Ive.
Engineers are said to be “racing” to get the design finished for Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June in time for a planned release in September.
A number of internal deadlines have already been moved back, it is claimed, and members of Apple’s Mac team have also been drafted into the project.
It is understood that the skeuomorphic design favoured by former software boss Scott Forstall (which, amongst other things, lead to the faux-wooden design of Newstand and the pad-like Notes app) is being shunned in favour of a flatter, Windows 8-esque look.
The email and calendar apps are also said to be undergoing a complete overhaul.
Further attention is being placed on scrutinising in-house apps following the disaster that was the introduction of Apple’s own maps app last year.
Opus Research analyst says that Ive’s leading of the project means that “Apple is really under tremendous pressure to come out with something different and something new”, such is the impact the Brit had had on the aesthetic of consumer electronics.