iOS 5 for iPhone 3GS?

guyh · Jun 4, 2011

So what does everyone think, will us 3GS users get the new software, maybe even perhaps just a limited amount of features?

Surely the primitive 3GS could handle some sort of new notifications...

stridemat · Jun 4, 2011

IMO I think the 3GS will be left behind. I doubt its going to pack enough 'clout' to provide a satisfactory user experience.

BlindMellon · Jun 4, 2011

guyh said:
So what does everyone think, will us 3GS users get the new software, maybe even perhaps just a limited amount of features?

Surely the primitive 3GS could handle some sort of new notifications...

Not a chance. I agree, 3GS will be left behind at iOS5's doorstep.

robbieduncan · Jun 4, 2011

I think it will depend on whether there is an API/feature that Apple need a huge user base to push. If there is they will shoe-horn iOS 5 onto the 3GS with all other new features/improvements (including any updated notification system) disabled. If not they will simply state "Apple A series Processor required" which is a nice, simple, consumer-understandable statement that will mean the 3GS does not get it.

Either way I cannot see the 3GS getting updates like any improved notification system.

guyh · Jun 4, 2011

The iphone 5 better come out soon then!

robbieduncan said:
I think it will depend on whether there is an API/feature that Apple need a huge user base to push. If there is they will shoe-horn iOS 5 onto the 3GS with all other new features/improvements (including any updated notification system) disabled. If not they will simply state "Apple A series Processor required" which is a nice, simple, consumer-understandable statement that will mean the 3GS does not get it.

Either way I cannot see the 3GS getting updates like any improved notification system.

doesnt look like the 5 is coming out any time soon though, I wouldnt have thought the software would only be compatiable with 1 phone on release...

robbieduncan · Jun 4, 2011

guyh said:
doesnt look like the 5 is coming out any time soon though, I wouldnt have thought the software would only be compatiable with 1 phone on release...

Which is why I suspect it may be made 3GS compatible so as developers can use the new APIs but all new features disabled for the 3GS.

bruinsrme · Jun 4, 2011

BlindMellon said:
Not a chance. I agree, 3GS will be left behind at iOS5's doorstep.

I agree. The bloated firmware will require more processor power.
Stream lining and making the OS more processor friendly is more than likely too time consuming. Things are moving too fast to waste time on the older phone.
However, apple and ATT can surely capitalize on the refurb 3Gs becoming a free phone and build on their market share.
My wife is still on 3.1.3 and loving her 3Gs with no complaints, jail broken of course.
I am willing to bet the iP4 will take a performance hit with iOS5

wordoflife · Jun 4, 2011

I believe it will be an extremely watered down version. Possibly no new notifications. Think back to the 3G on 4.x ... it really only got folders and some other crap. I'm sure if there is no notification system for 3GS, they'll be a tweak in Cydia to enable it.

The Phazer · Jun 4, 2011

I don't think the 3GS will even get zero-day exploit fixes from now on, just as the 3G and 2G haven't.

Phazer

saving107 · Jun 4, 2011

If the iPhone 3GS and 3rd generation iPod touch do get iOS 5, then those will be the only 2 devices that Apple continues to support even without an A4/A5 processor since everything else that runs on iOS has at least an A4 chip.

iPhone 4 - A4
iPod touch 4th gen - A4
iPad - A4
iPad 2 - A5
Apple TV - A4

and the new Time Capsule/Airport Extreme is rumored to also run on iOS and carry an A4/A5 chip.

I believe Apple will cut the iPhone 3GS from further updates.

wordoflife · Jun 4, 2011

saving107 said:
I believe Apple will cut the iPhone 3GS from further updates.

I don't. There will be an update to support the latest apps, if not the latest features. People who bought their 3GS on May 1st are going to be pissed that they are locked into a 2 year contract where they can't even update an app.

125037 · Jun 4, 2011

I don't think it'll be left behind. I think iOS 5 will probably be more efficient. Further, they are still selling the 3Gs in stores. And while this doesn't mean that they "have to" or "will definitely" support the device, I just don't think they'd release a new OS that wasn't compatible with something still on the market.

If anything it'll be watered down with a few disabled features. But who knows, anything can happen.

saving107 · Jun 4, 2011

wordoflife said:
I don't. There will be an update to support the latest apps, if not the latest features. People who bought their 3GS on May 1st are going to be pissed that they are locked into a 2 year contract where they can't even update an app.

Using your example, just because someone bought an iPhone 3GS on May 1st and signed a two year contract doesn't mean that they should expect updates for the next two years, they will get cut off at some point and I believe the iPod touch 3rd generation will be cut as well and that doesn't require a contract, yet they have almost identical hardware.

Up until last September Apple was still selling the 8GB 2nd Generation iPod touch and then 4 months later they officially stopped supporting it with iOS 4.2.1, and if I remember the Terms of Service correctly, Apple only promises at least 1 major OS upgrade and the iPhone 3GS originally shipped with iOS 3.0 (they don't have to support iOS 5 if they don't want to).

Finally, last year iPhone 3G owners were mad because Apple released iOS 4.0 for their device which then made their phones perform extremely slow and even though Apple released several updates after words claiming it would improve performance, many are still not happy and I believe that unless Apple can make iOS 5 run as smoothly on an iPhone 3GS as it can on an iPhone 4, they won't want a repeat of what happened last year.

I'm not claiming to be right, but this is what I believe will happen.

Ashin · Jun 4, 2011

The processor speed difference between the 3GS and 4 isn't even very big, and the 4 has to push a far greater amount of pixels to the screen slowing it down.

Some benchmarks even rate the 3GS as being faster in certain situations due to this

BTW, absolutely love how people seem to think the 3GS couldn't handle notifications... rofl, typical Appletard logic since jailbroken iPhones can magically handle it, even the 3G can.

MacRumors really does live up to it's bad reputation with threads like this

guyh · Jun 4, 2011

I sadly think it is also the end for my old phone, i rather do hope now that the 5 comes out later in the year because my contract ends on the 1st of jan. at least i have my ipad 2 to enjoy the new features on.

Ashin said:
The processor speed difference between the 3GS and 4 isn't even very big, and the 4 has to push a far greater amount of pixels to the screen slowing it down.

Some benchmarks even rate the 3GS as being faster in certain situations due to this

BTW, absolutely love how people seem to think the 3GS couldn't handle notifications... rofl, typical Appletard logic since jailbroken iPhones can magically handle it, even the 3G can.

MacRumors really does live up to it's bad reputation with threads like this

well im sorry.

at least i can jailbreak

wordoflife · Jun 4, 2011

saving107 said:
Using your example, just because someone bought an iPhone 3GS on May 1st and signed a two year contract doesn't mean that they should expect updates for the next two years, they will get cut off at some point and I believe the iPod touch 3rd generation will be cut as well and that doesn't require a contract, yet they have almost identical hardware.

Up until last September Apple was still selling the 8GB 2nd Generation iPod touch and then 4 months later they officially stopped supporting it with iOS 4.2.1, and if I remember the Terms of Service correctly, Apple only promises at least 1 major OS upgrade and the iPhone 3GS originally shipped with iOS 3.0 (they don't have to support iOS 5 if they don't want to).

Finally, last year iPhone 3G owners were mad because Apple released iOS 4.0 for their device which then made their phones perform extremely slow and even though Apple released several updates after words claiming it would improve performance, many are still not happy and I believe that unless Apple can make iOS 5 run as smoothly on an iPhone 3GS as it can on an iPhone 4, they won't want a repeat of what happened last year.

I'm not claiming to be right, but this is what I believe will happen.

I understand.

Well imo, the 3GS performs almost as smoothly as the 4 (there isn't a huge difference) so if Apple optimizes the software to work properly, it shouldn't be an issue.

acfusion29 · Jun 4, 2011

saving107 said:
Using your example, just because someone bought an iPhone 3GS on May 1st and signed a two year contract doesn't mean that they should expect updates for the next two years, they will get cut off at some point and I believe the iPod touch 3rd generation will be cut as well and that doesn't require a contract, yet they have almost identical hardware.

Up until last September Apple was still selling the 8GB 2nd Generation iPod touch and then 4 months later they officially stopped supporting it with iOS 4.2.1, and if I remember the Terms of Service correctly, Apple only promises at least 1 major OS upgrade and the iPhone 3GS originally shipped with iOS 3.0 (they don't have to support iOS 5 if they don't want to).

Finally, last year iPhone 3G owners were mad because Apple released iOS 4.0 for their device which then made their phones perform extremely slow and even though Apple released several updates after words claiming it would improve performance, many are still not happy and I believe that unless Apple can make iOS 5 run as smoothly on an iPhone 3GS as it can on an iPhone 4, they won't want a repeat of what happened last year.

I'm not claiming to be right, but this is what I believe will happen.

Apple doesn't have to support anything actually.

take a look at other phones, they come loaded with (let's say) version 1.0, and that's the only version the user will EVER see.

but anyways.. 3GS will be left behind.

and to the people saying Apple will release iOS5 for the 3GS because they won't wanna give it to the iPhone 4 only, this is what's going to happen:

- iOS5 beta from June-August (similar to April-June for iOS4)
- Next-gen iPhone release in September, along with iOS5

saving107 · Jun 4, 2011

Ashin said:
BTW, absolutely love how people seem to think the 3GS couldn't handle notifications... rofl, typical Appletard logic since jailbroken iPhones can magically handle it, even the 3G can.

MacRumors really does live up to it's bad reputation with threads like this

I didn't say that the iPhone 3GS couldn't handle certain task/features, I said that unless Apple can make iOS 5 run as smoothly on an iPhone 3GS as it can on an iPhone 4 that they shouldn't release it unless they want a repeat of what happened last year with iPhone 3G. I even jailbroke the iPhone 3G and added Mulitasking and Background wallpaper, could it handle it, yes, could it handle it efficiently, No.

Also, the first iPhone and iPhone 3G are basically the same hardware except for 3G and GPS, yet Apple stopped supporting it with iOS 3.1.3, yet the iPhone 3G went as far as iOS 4.2.1

ikaveh · Jun 4, 2011

considering that apple is still selling 3gs i dont think they leave it as soon as they stop selling it.

applefanDrew · Jun 4, 2011

guyh said:
The iphone 5 better come out soon then!

doesnt look like the 5 is coming out any time soon though, I wouldnt have thought the software would only be compatiable with 1 phone on release...

2 phones not 1. iPhone 4 and iPhone 5. We're getting a preview Monday......not a release.

Kentochan · Jun 4, 2011

Well, iPhone 3G ended with iOS 4.2.1, so maybe Apple's gonna try and support 3GS for iOS 5.

The Californian · Jun 4, 2011

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

I think we've got to keep in mind that iOS 5 most likely won't see a public release until September alongside the next iPhone. Plenty of time to phase out the 3GS.

I can see devs being able to use it for beta testing on a 3GS - but not for the public release unless it is greatly watered down.

BlindMellon · Jun 4, 2011

iMJustAGuy said:
I don't think it'll be left behind. I think iOS 5 will probably be more efficient. Further, they are still selling the 3Gs in stores. And while this doesn't mean that they "have to" or "will definitely" support the device, I just don't think they'd release a new OS that wasn't compatible with something still on the market.

If anything it'll be watered down with a few disabled features. But who knows, anything can happen.

I bought a new 32gig 3GS 12 months ago (a month before the iP4 was announced) and I don't expect iOS5 to come to the 3GS. From the horror stories my friends tell of their 3G's going to the dogs with iOS4, Apple would be stupid to pull the same stunt on the 3GS.

Hell, the iPhone 4 is one year old technology at this point.

QuarterSwede · Jun 4, 2011

Ashin said:
The processor speed difference between the 3GS and 4 isn't even very big, and the 4 has to push a far greater amount of pixels to the screen slowing it down.

Some benchmarks even rate the 3GS as being faster in certain situations due to this

BTW, absolutely love how people seem to think the 3GS couldn't handle notifications... rofl, typical Appletard logic since jailbroken iPhones can magically handle it, even the 3G can.

MacRumors really does live up to it's bad reputation with threads like this

I'm waiting for KnightWRX to chime in and say the exact same thing.

I think Apple's MO is to withhold features from otherwise capable products to push people to buy the newer.

saving107 said:
Also, the first iPhone and iPhone 3G are basically the same hardware except for 3G and GPS, yet Apple stopped supporting it with iOS 3.1.3, yet the iPhone 3G went as far as iOS 4.2.1

This. It seems they only support for 2 years.

guyh · Jun 4, 2011

Kentochan said:
Well, iPhone 3G ended with iOS 4.2.1, so maybe Apple's gonna try and support 3GS for iOS 5.

Certainly want 'em to give it a go

When this inevitably doesn't come to the 3GS will i be able to download the software and install it manually through something like redsn0w? After all it has been done with android.

iOS 5 for iPhone 3GS?

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