Apple Said to Launch iOS Public Beta Program in March

Apple plans to release iOS 8.3 as a public beta as early as March, sources speaking with 9to5Mac have revealed. As it turns out, Apple wants to repeat the success it had with the OS X Public Beta program by seeding the third beta of iOS 8.3 to the public via the existing AppleSeed program.

Public beta program

There is a difference between the two beta programs, though: While the OS X Public Beta had a user base of 1 million, the iOS beta program apparently will be limited to roughly 100,000, according to sources. A select group of retail employees have already been seeded with iOS betas.

9to5Mac’s sources have also whispered that iOS 8.3 is codenamed Stowe, and that the second beta seed is expected next week. iOS 8.3 will be followed by iOS 8.4, codenamed Copper, which will include Apple’s music streaming service.

As with every beta program, the main goal is to be able to launch a polished, more reliable, and widely tested operating system, which wasn’t exactly the case with iOS 8.

iOS 9, codenamed Monarch, will be publicly unveiled in June at the World Worldwide Developer Conference and allegedly includes fixes and performance enhancements as “headline features.”

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