Update: The maintenance lasted about half an hour and is now complete with all services restored according to the system status dashboard.
Apple’s system status dashboard is reporting an ongoing service disruption for multiple store services “due to scheduled maintenance.” Apple’s message says service unavailability may affect all users. Specifically, the maintenance is impacting the App Store, Apple TV, iBooks Store, iTunes in the Cloud, iTunes Store, and Mac App Store services.
Unlike recent Apple service outages, the service disruption is intentional as part of scheduled maintenance, although some users are reporting iCloud syncing issues and iCloud Mail delays not acknowledged by the system status dashboard. A widespread outage last month prompted Apple to publicly apologize to customers for the service interruption.
The maintenance is possibly related to the upcoming Apple Watch launch scheduled for April 24th. Apple started releasing the first set of Apple Watch apps to the App Store last week. Yesterday the company opened WatchKit app submission to all delivers in time to have the new set of apps ready for the Watch’s launch later this month.
