General: Does Apple intentionally make iOS glitchy on older devices to force upgrade?

[JaySoul]

Definitely yes. Said this for years.

Part of it is natural, part of it is deliberate.

[tymaster50]

Originally Posted by lowlypeace

I doubt they added a code to do it, but they could be "accidentally" overlooking possible tweaks that would enable flawless performance on all iOS devices

or say when they added the only major os change (folders) they may have intentionally left the code too bulky for the older devices, when they could have made it run perfectly, with a little work

and I don't get why iPad mini has the same processor as iPad 2, but iPad mini has siri and iPad 2 doesn't, strange

because they would look stupid if it didn't. Siri is the new voice control now and it's on all product from the 4S on

[Giuly]

No, because it's as glitchy on newer devices. Always wait for the .1, but that has been know for a longer time now

[scyap]

If they deliberately added code to degrade the device's performance, surely someone from the jailbreak community would have found out about it??

I mean, I'm sure those genius tinkers would've figured a way to disable it (on jailbroken devices) and would definitely cause a scene in the press world.

[Saladinos]

They might cut features, but they won't introduce glitches.

Glitches are surprisingly difficult to create - especially if you try and do it without exposing security holes. It'd be a supreme waste of effort, only to make your customers less happy with your product.

I'm not even sure it would be legal to do that. It certainly wouldn't be ethical and I wouldn't be surprised if developers just refused to do that.

Apple isn't losing out on iPhone sales because of lack of desire for new iPhones. It wouldn't do them any good.

Basically, it might seem like a clever and sneaky thing to do superficially, but in the long term it'd be painfully obvious, waste a lot of time and resources, and not even lead to higher sales. It makes absolutely no sense at all.

[OZPINHEAD]

Of course. Apple has 2 teams one to upgrade and improve iOS for new devices and the other to see how much they can screw over the old device users.
seriously ?

[northernbaldy]

Glol
The only problem with my gen 1 iPad is that I'm now missing some functionality of iOS 6
But it's old hardware! I don't expect the new software to run on old hardware

[roadbloc]

I doubt they go out of their way to make it like that, but I don't think they put much effort into ensuring it does run smoothly. Two OSs on from the iOS Device's original OS and there is certainly a noticeable decrease in speed and performance. Animations become choppy and stuff simply takes slightly longer to do.

No big deal, but not brilliant for a device of its price. Especially since iOS runs on very few devices anyway.

[BagehotW1]

Intentionally crippling iOS? I don't think so.
Withholding new features from older devices, however, yes. But there needs to be a way of enticing customers to buy newer devices when they are only very marginal upgrades on the whole. Whether you consider yourself forced or compelled to buy these depends on the effectiveness of Apple's marketing strategy; and the degree to which the seed planted by Apple in your mind has taken root—a simpler way of asking the question: do the new features and a newer device constitute an obvious need?

[CTHarrryH]

Another ?? Question. New software needs better processors more memory better graphics. I want to move forwards not support old hardware.

[aerok]

It's like that for all products that can get updates in my opinion. Gadgets always work better on a clean install. On my iPhone 4, I would wipe before any major updates and it would run perfectly (Minus the new features like Siri).

[Sdahe]

I think Apple will try thier best to make you buy a new device everytime it comes out

[children]

Yes, this also gives the illusion the new product is significantly faster than the old, cheeky ain't it?

Never affected me though, I don't keep phones for more than a year and I upgrade ipad every 2 years..

[ajvizzgamer101]

Originally Posted by lowlypeace

Do you think apple intentionally nudge the performance of iOS to a level which older devices (previous generations) can't handle quite as well, to encourage users to buy new devices.

I think so.

I mean iOS does't do real multitasking, it pauses apps (which I like btw) and it is basically the same os as iOS 1, which the only major addition being folders,

so why on earth are their slight lags in performance, say on the iPad 2, even 1, or iPhone 4. on iPad 1 the lags are common and obvious, although it is usable, on iPhone 4 to 3 there will be the occasional lag when flicking from home screen to search box -

It looks like in order to have a completely fluid iOS experience you NEED the latest device, I just wonder if this is a rather cynical ploy by apple to get people to upgrade to a new device, I mean, as I say the os is BASIC - it should work flawlessly on any iOS device

I could see them not support previous devices but I doubt they put lines of code that made it a crappy experience.

[espressoroast]

I would say Hanlon's Razor applies in in this topic.
So, no.

[TheGrudge]

I would say most definitely.

Facetime over 3G only works on the iPhone 4S, not the 4. Same with Siri. I find that hard to believe.

The one that got me - I think it was when iOS 5 came out. My friend on an iPhone 4 had some ringtones that weren't available on my 3GS.

But hey - it works for them, why change it.

I just curse and then buy new.

[skippymac]

I voted no, but I think your poll is very one sided. I doubt if apple intentionally makes it laggy on older devices, but you can't realistically expect them to spend millions on free software for devices people bought years ago.

[Cripps]

And even if you are not paranoid it does not mean they are not out to get you!

[Rodster]

I voted no because lately Apple has been doing a good job of shooting itself in the foot, knees and ankles without even trying.

[cnguyen0320]

Originally Posted by Jare

I'm voting no, and here's why.

I think they just do not "optimize" the new OS for the older devices. Each OS upgrade has more and more code and changes and with that brings some small performance hits to the older models (albiet small!). Instead of optimizing the code across the entire range they just "leave it be" and allow the older devices to slowly phase out.

This I agree with. I don't think they intentionally do it but it is being done. Every new update, the older phones will run slower. In my opinion though, by not paying attention to the old phones its almost the same thing. New iOS versions should be optimized for every version of the phone that they plan to get the update and that would make apple focus on offering us more with each new reiteration and not just better optimized for the new version of iOS, which is what is pretty much what is happening. And obviously the slowing of older phones isn't an isolated problem... 40% of all respondents think it's happening as an apple conspiracy plan... The number of us who experience slowing phones (whatever the reason) is much more

[mattroman246]

I honestly sometimes wonder

[gmanist1000]

I thought about that, but it's just the hardware that can't handle the new software.

[BlaqkAudio]

Originally Posted by children

Yes, this also gives the illusion the new product is significantly faster than the old, cheeky ain't it?

Except that they are faster? If you compare older devices, then yes, the improvements may be minor, but newer devices outperform older devices by far. Just look at the Geekbench results for the iPhone 5 (~1600) vs the 4S (~630) vs the 4 (~390).

Originally Posted by TheGrudge

I would say most definitely.

Facetime over 3G only works on the iPhone 4S, not the 4. Same with Siri. I find that hard to believe.

The one that got me - I think it was when iOS 5 came out. My friend on an iPhone 4 had some ringtones that weren't available on my 3GS.

But hey - it works for them, why change it.

I just curse and then buy new.

Except that has nothing to do with how glitchy iOS upgrades are on older devices. Witholding new features from older devices is nothing new.

[children]

Originally Posted by BlaqkAudio

Except that they are faster? If you compare older devices, then yes, the improvements may be minor, but newer devices outperform older devices by far. Just look at the Geekbench results for the iPhone 5 (~1600) vs the 4S (~630) vs the 4 (~390).

Geekbench doesn't reflect real world usage, I'm not talking about gaming performance or anything like that, I'm talking about the UI fluidity. When apple makes previous gen devices lag, it creates an illusion of making the new device seem even faster than it really is.