Apple is pushing its promised October release of iTunes 11 out to November because the media management app and playback update is taking longer than expected to finish. The company showed off the new version of the Mac app during its iPhone 5 and iPod announcements in September and said it would be available for download by the end of October.
iTunes 11 release date slips to November
"The new iTunes is taking longer than expected and we wanted to take a little extra time to get it right," Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said, according to CNET. "We look forward to releasing this new version of iTunes with its dramatically simpler and cleaner interface, and seamless integration with iCloud before the end of November."
iTunes 11 will sport a redesigned user interface that more closely resembles its counterpart on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The new interface favors showing music as albums instead of lists, shows album contents as fly-out menus without requiring users to change views, lists upcoming songs during music playback, can sync media playback location so users can start listening or viewing on one device and pick up where they left off on another device.
The update will also include a new mini player view that supports media library searches and adding tracks to playlist queues.
News of the delay follows Apple's announcement that Senior Vice President of iOS Software Scott Forstall is leaving the company and his duties have already been reassigned to other company executives. The announcement has lead to speculation that Mr. Forstall's departure is related to the delay -- implying any input he had on the new iTunes interface is being stripped from the app -- although he was directly involved in iOS app development, and not OS X apps.
It's likely that iTunes 11 was a victim of the company's agressive fall release schedule that included the iPhone 5, the Retina Display iPod touch, the redesigned iPod nano, new iMac and Mac mini models, the 13.3-inch Retina Display MacBook Pro, the fourth generation iPad, and the iPad mini.
Apple isn't offering any more details on the status of iTunes 11 other than its new promise of a late November release.