Apple needs to start updating its built-in apps separately from iOS

Like it or not, smartphone makers are always going to bundle apps with their devices, but at least most of these companies have the decency to keep those apps regularly updated. Apple, on the other hand, doesn’t update its built-in apps individually because that would make too much sense. Instead, the company bundles app updates with iOS updates, meaning it can take several weeks for one of the built-in iOS apps to be updated, and that needs to change. 

Apple Music, which was released just a few weeks ago, landed to much fanfare from tech journalists. One prominent Apple blogger, Jim Dalrymple, praised the service saying “I’m damned impressed.” Now, Dalrymple gone back on that excitement in a new post trashing the service and labeling it “a nightmare.” A few weeks after launch, critics are starting to agree that Apple Music is a little rough around the edges and needs more work. Here’s the thing: Apple needs to separate its apps — or at least some of them — from requiring entire iOS updates as soon as it can. It’s a crazy backwards policy to require entire point releases, like iOS 8.4 for Apple Music’s release, for adding or updating individual apps. Such a system slows down progress from Apple until major changes are available, leaving users in the lurch for weeks or months longer than necessary for fairly trivial fixes.