iOS 16.2 to release in December, iOS 16.3 in February or March

Apple will be launching the final version of iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 in mid-December, while iOS 16.3, iPadOS 16.3, and macOS Ventura 13.3 will be released to the public in February or March 2023. This bit of news has come from the latest newsletter by Mark Gurman, in which he also mentioned that Apple is delaying its M2 MacBook Pro launch to the first quarter of 2023.

Release dates for iOS 16.2, iOS 16.3

iOS 16.2 is currently in beta testing so the timeline for its release makes sense. There have been a number of iOS 16 features that have either been delayed or yet to be released, and this will be the software update to bring them to iPhone and iPad. iOS 16.3 and macOS Ventura 13.3 are still far off in the future. Specifically, with macOS Ventura, we are still at version 13.0 for public users and 13.1 for beta users, so Gurman’s newsletter confirms that we will get more software updates by March 2023.

I’m told that Apple is aiming to introduce the upgraded models—including M2-based versions of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros—in the first quarter of calendar 2023 and has tied the launches to the upcoming macOS Ventura 13.3 and iOS 16.3. Those software updates are expected to debut between early February and the beginning of March.

While the new Macs won’t debut until next year, the company still has some software coming. The iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 updates, which began beta testing this past week, should be released around mid-December.

It is unclear what Apple plans to include in iOS 16.3 and iPadOS 16.3. Along with bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements, it is possible that the company may include new features as has been the case over the past few years with Q1 software updates. As an example, mouse and trackpad support for iPads was released with iPadOS 13.4 in March 2020.

Release dates for iOS 16.2, iOS 16.3

Imran Hussain