Apple Doesn't Deliberately Slow Down Older Devices According to Benchmark Analysis

[drewyboy]

What in insanely worthless "report". Of course the numbers for raw hardware is going to be the same. Too bad they completely missed the point on the user experience which is the GUI. Two iPhone 5S's here and I'm so glad that I've blocked iOS 11 and don't get the harassing upgrade popup all the time.

And of course, Apple defenders are out in full force because "study" somehow invalidates everyone who has a critical opinion/experience with Apple hardware slowing down.
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Apple stops deliberately crippling iPhones since iPhone 5, so I think this is caused by rushed launching date. Either that or pure incompetence that either way, will be fixed by next software update.

You mean in iOS12? Just like how they pulled fixes from iOS9 to force people into iOS10 update? Yup. It's true, that's why there's a lawsuit about it and emails from within Apple that have been used in the lawsuit clearly state they did pull a bug fix from iOS9 to make it exclusive for iOS10. So when people called on the issue or went into the store, they could say "download iOS10 to resolve it".

 

[jonathanmiami]

Total BS, then they should let me install iOS 9 on my iPad Mini Retina since iOS 10 made it obsolete

 

[maplingstorie]

Funny how when Macs get new updates, they don't lag and some even have their performance improved but it's the total opposite for iOS. Why? My mac has been running on 10.8 and even on high sierra, no lags. Even if they added new things into iOS, it shouldn't have affected the GUI speeds since scrolling and loading times have not had any new features added. It just doesn't compute for me.

 

[Radon87000]

DELETED

 

[MH01]

What rubbish. You have never done software planning by the sounds of it. Feature development can span multiple releases so no assumption can be made on development effort unless it’s formally disclosed. Companies like Apple have QA depts to perform regression testing on legacy hardware. That’s when performane degradations would be found.

Developers != Engineers. Do not ever confuse a real engineer with a software developer.

Software developers exist for a single reason to meet the goals a priorities of the company they work for. As with any project planning, developers need to plan the time line and deliver to that deadline. If said developer can’t make their dates then remedial action is taken. Quality suffers because a development time line is too aggressive. But more often than not a developer sets a deadline and fails to meet the deadline because they underestimate and fail to deliver. If you miss your dates then you’re liable and the cause of poor quality. Marketing milestones are rigid releases for specific reasons that are more important than any developer.

Since you find the need to get aggressive , let me put you straight!

Over 15 years in software development if you must know, from testing, system analysis, business analysis, project managemt , programme management.

QA department ..... you think apple works in a waterfall fashion in 2017, how cute. Mate in 2017 automation testing is part of your development teams.... look up continuous delivery , not here to teach you development methodologies.....

Yeah yeah.... it's called software engineering actually, symantics mate, some refer to them as engineers, some as developers . I myself don't really consider software to be "real" engineering .... we accept "bugs" and the attitude we can fix it later .

You clearly have not done development , product sets the priorities, the PM will work with product and the Dev team to set a delivery timeline based on the teams estimates . Using an iterative process "agile" we are able to plan and execute the said priorities and manage the business expectations..... this is updated continuously....suggest you read up on the basics of agile software delivery that it is not the developers who "fail" and it's not QA debt , it's tech debt , which is not developers fault , it's something product accepts taking short cuts, it must be managed .

lol marketing is more important than any developer....

You are kidding right ? Let me demonstrate a clear example where marketing were complete idiots ..... apple maps! If marketing had any brains they would have talked to those useless developers and asked them what was possible...... though sounds like
People like you will come up with a completely unrealistic scope and blame the developers for missing it ...... good on you!

My last exchange with a marketing genius was when they sold a major campign in a magazine for a domain we did not own.... and tried to blame us for not implementing his requirements .... ha ha ha ...

you know when it actually works, when marketing gets up there having already run the proposition past development , and scope creep is managed . Naturally if timelines get tight , you deliver your higher priorities first and push back the lower priories to later release.... of course Apple plans these things, though an annual release cycle has show that bugs have gone up......

 

[talkRAYdio]

how do you people read this crap and believe it

the point of this article is that apple doesn't ADD something to the OS to slow down the older models.

but that's NOT the point all of us out here are making. we're not necessarily saying apple is ADDING something. we are saying apple is REQUIRING us to use a version of the OS that is too heavy for the device itself.

NO ONE WITH A BRAIN CAN DENY THE FOLLOWING THREE FACTS:

1. it is a well known fact that each new version of any operating system (desktop, laptop, mobile device, anything..) increases the amount of resources needed for it to function. anyone who denies this is a moron
2. by definition, this means that if you upgrade nothing else when you upgrade your os, your computer/device will not be as speedy as it previously was
3. Each subsequent release of hte OS will slow down your computer/device more and more and more each time until it becomes so slow it's best effective use is as a paper weight

this has been true for decades and no one with a brain denies it. it's the nature of computers and operating systems.

what apple is doing is taking advantage of these facts by requiring us to be in a version of the os that's turning devices into paperweights.

my original ipad mini was fINE till apple required me to move from ios 8 to 9.

 

[newellj]

That won’t stop the conspiracy theories.

Irrational haters will continue to hate. Facts are meaningless for people who see only conspiracies and are determined to see themselves as victims.

One of the greatest hardware/software combinations I have ever used was a Dell 486 running WfW 3.11. Would I expect that same computer to run Windows 10, or even 7?

I have had Apple hardware that more or less collapsed under the burden of new iOS versions. iOS 9 basically killed a couple of iPad 2s. My iPod Touch Gen 5 switches apps painfully slowly although it runs ok when it has launched an app. It ran iOS 7 quite speedily, but there were new apps that I couldn't install and updates for others that I also couldn't install. That's life in the tech lane.

 

[talkRAYdio]

meanwhile articles about how newer versions of iOS slow down your device (and what to do about it) abound... http://osxdaily.com/2017/10/06/ios-11-slow-speed-up-performance/

 

[0958400]

This graphical representation is a misrepresentation. It has been reduced in its size. The y-axis is longer than it needed be and thus is not showing any valid comparisons as the overall size of the bars has been compressed. This "representation" is a ridiculous manipulation of the readers.
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Moaners on here will still find a way to put a negative spin and confirm their bias about Apple’s planned obsolescence...

If nothing else, they will claim Apple paid for this research.....

If nothing else, they may have paid you for saying this.

 

[springsup]

The whole intent behind software updates from Apples product line, is to make the product more efficient and rectify any issues that are reported or need revamping. Not only do they support their devices for a longer duration, they likely also provide more software updates regularly then most other tech companies do on an annual basis. It's just a constant improvement process to make the product operate efficiently and optimally.

This.

Apple is all about their brand. Longevity of the products is one of the big appeals, and makes the idea of buying an Apple product as an "affordable luxury" more palatable to the non-millionaires. Longevity isn't something they can just excite people about in marketing materials, though - it comes through experience owning previous Apple products, or word-of-mouth if you've never owned an Apple product.

Not only that, but it just shows a good attitude towards your customers. Other companies have a transactional customer relationship - they just want to sell you a product, once, then they don't care about you again. Apple wants to be the company that continues to see you as a customer, continues to make the product you bought even better, and who delivers a continuously-secured platform so you don't have to worry about it.

If Apple stops living up to that, people will notice, longevity and continuously valuing their customers won't be a part of their brand any more, customers will be more reluctant to buy, and the company will suffer.

 

[lordofthereef]

The problem is that there is a really small window to roll back. Sure you can decide not to upgrade but should there be an issue requiring a restore there is no choice. And now your phone is in the latest firmware and it’s pig slow and there’s nothing you can do. The end user wouldn’t feel good about this.

Now I’m on a 6s plus on iOS 11 and in perfectly happy. But I have experienced slowdown on older hardware. As I’ve said many times in this forum I think we’ve reached diminishing returns. There are benchmarks and then there is real world use. There’s just not thebstark difference between my 6s plus and an 8 as there was between say the 4 and the 5.

 

[MartyvH]

It should, there is now indisputable evidence that these disgusting allegations made about Apple are completely untrue.

Do you also write for the conservative press?
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It's just a constant improvement process to make the product operate efficiently and optimally.

Except it is not operating optimally. Developer time is not being put into optimising the Apple and third-party app code to remove GUI slowdowns. The CPU/GPU benchmarks are only a smokescreen.

 

[Cyranis]

IPhone 6 plus. Outlook email, news both take minimum six to eight seconds of staring at a blank screen before anything loads. Also for the first time ever, if the screen is black before this loading happens, I can see the screen burn in images behind the battery and service indicators on the top bar.

So they didn't slow down the hardware. The GUI is PAINFULLY slow.

 

[oplix]

this has nothing to do with benchmarks. benchmarks test synthetic responses of hardware. hardware doesn't change over time. all this proves is that there is no change of operational frequency. the actual "slowing down" happens on the software side which no benchmarks will ever show. get woke kids.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

I believe they don't deliberately do it. I never thought they did. That said, updates do sometimes slow performance down. iOS 11 has slowed down the UI on my iPhone 6S and iPad. Fact. Not a "hater", not a "whiner". It's a fact I can't deny. I don't want it to be true, but it is.

 

[Bacillus]

We're reading this all wrong...
This must be about watchbands !

 

[techfreak23]

Well its obvious that Apple can build a lite version of iOS that can run on older phones smoothly but of course they don't want to.

Apple already does that to some degree... that’s why not all features of new iOS releases are enabled on older devices, but that only has so much of an effect. If Apple didn’t do that, you would still have people complaining about Apple slowing down their older devices with all of these new features that demand newer hardware.

 

[Ethosik]

People need to stop with the new software on old hardware argument. I did not realize my 12.9 iPad Pro rev 2 from WWDC 2017 was too old to run iOS 11 and my iPjone 6S can run it MUCH better. It is just buggy guys. Give it time like I said.

 

[melendezest]

This.

Apple is all about their brand. Longevity of the products is one of the big appeals, and makes the idea of buying an Apple product as an "affordable luxury" more palatable to the non-millionaires. Longevity isn't something they can just excite people about in marketing materials, though - it comes through experience owning previous Apple products, or word-of-mouth if you've never owned an Apple product.

Not only that, but it just shows a good attitude towards your customers. Other companies have a transactional customer relationship - they just want to sell you a product, once, then they don't care about you again. Apple wants to be the company that continues to see you as a customer, continues to make the product you bought even better, and who delivers a continuously-secured platform so you don't have to worry about it.

If Apple stops living up to that, people will notice, longevity and continuously valuing their customers won't be a part of their brand any more, customers will be more reluctant to buy, and the company will suffer.

People like me are noticing.

And obviously more than just me, enough to justify people doing this study at all, and completely using it as a piece of BS propaganda to rile up the cheerleaders even more.

My older Macs have been bulletproof; I type this on a 6 year old machine. But Pre and Post-Steve Apple are different companies (related to his death or otherwise).

I haven't upgraded since 2012.

And as far as iOS, I refuse to use it because it DOES slow down older devices (duh), whether Apple "does it deliberately" or not.

And even that is not the issue, it's the fact that APPLE PREVENTS YOU FROM REVERTING TO THE OS THAT RAN BEST ON YOUR IOS DEVICE, should you decide to take them at their word and update it then not like the results.

 

[WichitaMacUser]

What Apple needs to allow is on older devices such as the iPad 3 or iPhone 5 is to be able to downgrade to a lower iOS such as iOS 9. I mean Apple allows a user to format a MacBook Pro that is older if the newest software slows your machine down. For example. MacBook Pro 2010 running High Sierra can be downgraded to Yosemite. Why won’t Apple allow iOS users to do this? Idk! I’ve always thought it was because of jail breaking devices on older iOS software. This would 100% fix users complaints about a new iOS slowing down the device.

 

[pratikindia]

I guess, we can find videos of this kind of slowdowns on YouTube. The new OS updates indeed older devices them down even if the benchmarks do not show.

 

[rootee]

IDK, my iPhone 6 still feels like a 3 year old iPhone 8.

 

[MH01]

Funny how when Macs get new updates, they don't lag and some even have their performance improved but it's the total opposite for iOS. Why? My mac has been running on 10.8 and even on high sierra, no lags. Even if they added new things into iOS, it shouldn't have affected the GUI speeds since scrolling and loading times have not had any new features added. It just doesn't compute for me.

When apple starts locking you into a macOS version and not allow you to roll back, things will slow down let's keep Macs of the radar for Cook....well he is doing a great job ignoring them anyway

 

[Essaux]

It’s not about raw hardware slow downs, it’s about the software related slow down and the inability to revert back to an older OS.

The best example was my iPad 3. The day I upgraded it to a new iOS iteration it slowed down tremendously and became virtually rendered useless as there was so much lag.

Now Apple could have easily let me and millions of others downgrade the software back to an older version, but don’t allow for it and that’s intentionally slowing it down.

My girlfriend’s iPad 2 at the time - running the older iOS - was much faster than my newer iPad 3.

 

[jamesrick80]

In the case of iOS 11, major features like 32-bit app compatibility is stripped and new features aren't trickled down to older devices. Zero reason it should be running slower when it should be running faster. The fact that the slowness is even more widespread with slow iPhone 8 sales is highly suspect.

Most likely, they will send a new update during holiday season to slow their phones down more. That way they will have a reason to purchase a new iphone X or 8. It's not right but this is what happens when a company fully controls its software experience. The ability to directly manipulate iOS to enhance overall sales and profit.