Deep Organizational Issues Reportedly Holding Back iCloud Development

According to The Information, new additions and features to iCloud are being held up due to 'deep organizational issues'.

While company executives say they are making progress, interviews with current and former Apple employees reveal a different story behind the continued iCloud struggles. Apple first announced the iCloud Photo Library feature for iOS 8; however, the iCloud team missed the original iOS 8 deadline and had to ship an opt-in version in a later iOS 8.1 update.

Additionally, the Mac Photos app, which features tight iCloud integration has still not been released.


Apple is great at building hardware and software that runs on it. But it has long struggled to build services reliant on software that runs remotely rather than on devices. While company executives say they are making progress, interviews with nearly a dozen current and former Apple employees paint a different picture.

Deep organizational issues are holding up releases and complicating products.

The report claims that Apple's photo vision, codenamed Hyperion, has yet to be "fully realized". The internal issues cited in the report aren't the first to hurt Apple's software development. iOS 8 was reportedly set to feature numerous enhancements to the Maps application, but poor management eventually delayed the release.