Mac Observer:

Apple rolled out iTunes 12.7 on Tuesday with support for iOS 11—the new version of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch operating system that will be publicly available on September 19th. The update also makes some interface changes and does away with saving backups of the apps installed on your devices.

Many of us have complained about iTunes bloat and wanted Apple to do something about it but, in my opinion, this isn’t it. I like having backups on my Mac. Apple says:

The new iTunes focuses on music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks. Apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch are now exclusively available in the new App Store for iOS. And the new App Store makes it easy to get, update, and redownload apps—all without a Mac or PC.

Except I almost never “get, update, and redownload apps” without my Mac and I never buy apps directly from my iPhone. When I want to buy an app, I read reviews and check out the developer’s web site on my Mac, not on my iPhone. All of this leaves aside the fact many of us have bandwidth caps. Forcing users to use up bandwidth re-downloading apps, for any reason, seems user unfriendly. I recognize I may be an extreme use case but it would be nice if Apple simply made this an option for those users who don’t want to do it this way.