Apple Reportedly Seeding iOS 7.0.3 Internally Ahead of Potential Launch Next Week

Apple has reportedly begun seeding iOS 7.0.3 to some of its own employees and carrier partners, with a potential launch coming as soon as next week, according to BGR.

According to our sources, Apple has seeded iOS 7.0.3 to employees and partners for final testing. We’re not sure exactly when the new software will be released to the public, but we believe it will be sometime next week. The build number of iOS 7.0.3 is 11B491.

The claimed build number appears to be somewhat at odds with Apple's usual numbering patterns over the past several years, which should see all iOS 7.0.x releases carrying 11Axxx build numbers before moving on to 11Bxxx builds for iOS 7.1.x. The company did, however, vary from this pattern in earlier iOS versions, incrementing the letter designation even for x.x.1 releases at times.

MacRumors has indeed been seeing visits from devices on Apple's networks running iOS 7.0.3, with the first visits coming on Friday, September 20 and increasing significantly last week.

Apple just released iOS 7.0.2 to the public last Thursday, bringing several fixes for issues related to lock screen passcode bugs. iOS 7.0 was released to the public on September 18 with a special iOS 7.0.1 for Apple's new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models arriving that same day.