The same Apple employee responsible for testing Wednesday's iOS 8 update that left some users' phones bricked was also connected to the botched rollout of Apple Maps in 2012, according to a Bloomberg report:
The similarities don't end with the apologies Apple offered to disgruntled customers. The same person at Apple was in charge of catching problems before both products were released. Josh Williams, the mid-level manager overseeing quality assurance for Apple's iOS mobile-software group, was also in charge of quality control for maps, according to people familiar with Apple's management structure.
Williams was taken off the Maps team after the Maps rollout, but remained involved in iOS testing after that.
Bloomberg says it's not entirely Williams' fault, though:
At a company of Apple's size, no single person is solely responsible for large software problems, and Williams works with others tasked with catching issues before software is released. Apple has a board to determine what flaws need to be fixed, a committee called the Bug Review Board, known internally as BRB. The panel is overseen by Kim Vorrath, a vice president in charge of product management for iOS and Mac software. She reports up to Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president for software engineering.
The Apple Maps rollout was so bad Tim Cook was effusive in admitting the mistake in a recent interview with Charlie Rose. Here's what he said:
Oh, we screwed up. There are many screw ups in that one. There's just not one. There's many. And we've learned and corrected and are continuing to invest in maps, because our fundamental premise that maps were really key to Apple is the same. But we did screw up on the release. It should not have happened like it did. It shouldn't have come out.
Apple released an update to iOS 8 Wednesday after users complained about a number of bugs in the 8.0.0 version of the software.
Apple pulled the update after about an hour when many iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users reported not being able to make calls or transfer data. The iPhone 6's Touch ID fingerprint sensor was also disabled by the update.
Apple released iOS 8.0.2 on Thursday evening, which fixed the bug in 8.0.1.