Apple doesn’t often have problems rolling out software updates, even though it makes them available to all devices at once rather than phasing them out like other companies. But when it does have problems, however rare, they’re big.
An example of this: MacRumors reports that the rollout of iPadOS 18 for the M4 iPad Prowhich started yesterdayhas now been discontinued by Apple due to multiple reports of locked iPads following the update.
Bricking means the device is no longer working, so this is clearly the worst situation there is. Some people have taken it Reddit to express their frustration, describing how there was a disruption in the installation process, resulting in iPads that simply would not turn on. Affected users had to receive replacement iPads, as service was not possible.
Of course, this is only a handful of people experiencing these issues, but prevention is better than cure for Apple in this case, hence the current halt to the rollout. The issue people were experiencing on the M4 iPad Pro could be linked to installing the iPadOS 17.7 update first, before moving to iPadOS 18. That’s just speculation, though. Hopefully Apple gets to the bottom of this very soon and resumes the rollout.