iPhone 14 Reported to Ship With Earlier Build of iOS 16

iPhone 14 will begin shipping on Friday, September 16th. Ahead of users getting their hands on the long-awaited devices, it’s said that they will be shipping with an earlier build of iOS 16.

For current iPhone users with an iPhone 13 or earlier, iOS 16 rolled out this week on September 12th. The official rollout of iOS 16 came after Apple ran beta and testing phases for the software ahead of an official launch. However, iPhone 14 models shipping are reported to have an earlier build installed, via 9to5Mac.

Apparently, those who have already gotten their hands on an iPhone 14 were met with a day one update for the final build of iOS 16. According to AppleSWUpdates, the patch notes within the current build (20A362) state “This update provides bug fixes for your iPhone and addresses an issue that may cause some photos to appear soft when zooming in landscape orientation on iPhone 14 Pro Max.”

The new iPhones ship with an earlier version of iOS 16, so you’ll get a day one update to the final release build (20A362), which will show up with the following as release notes: pic.twitter.com/UnryNYzCXw

— Apple Software Updates (@AppleSWUpdates) September 13, 2022

This isn’t too out of the ordinary. Likely due to timing, iPhone 14 was likely packaged and prepped for shipping prior to iOS 16 being finalized. Therefore, Apple had to package its iPhone 14 series with an earlier build of the software with the expectation that a day one patch would need to be installed.

9to5Mac reports that most of the final components of iOS 16 were completed by August 6 and August 9. The firmware for iPhone 14 was completed by August 18th.

AppleSWUpdates also states that Apple Watch Series 8 will also have a day one update to 9.0 (20R364).