Apple Explains Why watchOS 27 Drops Support for So Many Models

[Premium1]

"People aren't buying our watches enough, so we gotta create planned obsolence."- Apple

They take away features from IOS/MacOS, there is 0 reason they couldn't do this as well. Keeping an $800 device around for such a short time is laughable but not surprised with Apple.

 

[Brettka7]

I’m currently 5 hours of phone calls deep
With Apple. I’ve bought four Apple Watch Hermes models since Series 0. My most recent one was a Series 7, which had AppleCare+ until Fall 2023. It was replaced one month before the warranty ended.

Now the battery has gone bad a second time, and Apple won’t allow me to pay for a replacement because it reports 85% health and passes every “test”. The Apple Watch support experience is truly miserable compared to every other product they make because Apple chose to make the battery irreplaceable. They just refurbish every watch.

I’m done. Buying their overpriced models doesn’t even get you a better experience. No better than if I was fighting them over an aluminum GPS-only. Their poor manufacturing decision becomes the user’s problem when the tiny battery starts to fail, but not fail badly enough.

 

[chuckles235]

Or a good way of saying "you might consider alternative smart watch brands"

You mean you don’t like your apple landlord?

 

[puckhead193]

I traded in my Series 1 Ultra at Apple for 200 bucks, then bought a cheap series 11 titanium on sale. And I'll probably never spend 'a lot' on an Apple Watch again, as this has been a reminder that any apple product is a sometimes very temporary mainstay.

I found a steal on a new series 10 SS on amazon for a ridiculous price... I don't think I' running to get new watches anymore especially if there isn't a big update.

 

[Basic75]

Do we know how much RAM the Apple Watches that were cut have? And how much the still supported ones have?

 

[CarAnalogy]

Sorry but Apple is just trying squeeze its fan base. Need to buy for AI and oh by the way AI is jacking up the prices. But hey we’re trillionaires

One of the many, many examples of how badly they missed the mark with Tahoe. They bragged about how many Apple employees have a SECOND house there. At Lake Tahoe. Some of the most expensive real estate in America. When many of us can't even afford one house.

 

[sfrsteel]

arm64_32 architecture phase ended.

I would buy this.. But 9,10, and Ultra 2 were also arm64_32 if memory serves correct. And all were updated to watchOS27. I think i am more on the side of quick revenue grab.

 

[Mactech20]

I was recently considering wearing my Series 7 again after being Watchless for 3-4 years. Guess I will just pass.

 

[lepetitnicolas]

exact comment i was going to make

It seems so logical. "Hello, we are not going to offer feature X in your country and we do not authorize you to receive the new updates for your absolutely fine iDevice because it would not run feature X very well." the thinking behind that reasoning is.... DUMB.

 

[Lasermoon]

Don't want Siri AI or the new tap gesture on my Ultra 1, i won't be buying another Apple watch.

 

[definitive]

needs the beckham "be honest" meme.

 

[mac-kitty]

I think it’s to sell watches (it worked on me 😳).

 

[nortonandreev]

The new Siri AI, that is not much more useful than the old Siri... They didn't release anything new in the Ultra for years, and because people refuse to upgrade, due to the lack of enhancements (combined with the higher pricing, compared to the standard model), so limiting software updates is the easiest thing they can do make people upgrade.

I'm keeping my Ultra 1 until they do a substantial redesign.

 

[Pezimak]

We know already, it's thanks to Ai slop Apple wants to force on as many of its users as possible. Considering you need an iPhone to use an Apple Watch, why couldn't they have just left the Ai slop on the iPhone and not on the Apple Watch? Meh I know the reason, sales, they want to force obsoletion even earlier then usual to drive up sales they know full well WILL plummet thanks to Ai... it is so pathetically ironic with these tech companies.

 

[MichaelAdam]

It is interesting and as expected to see that most of our Apple products are becoming obsolete if you want to make a real jump to the Ai world and be future proof for a new cycle. Of course they could give us the choice to support Ai or not but I guess too many would say “we are good for now with our chatbox app”

 

[k1121j]

I’m currently 5 hours of phone calls deep
With Apple. I’ve bought four Apple Watch Hermes models since Series 0. My most recent one was a Series 7, which had AppleCare+ until Fall 2023. It was replaced one month before the warranty ended.

Now the battery has gone bad a second time, and Apple won’t allow me to pay for a replacement because it reports 85% health and passes every “test”. The Apple Watch support experience is truly miserable compared to every other product they make because Apple chose to make the battery irreplaceable. They just refurbish every watch.

I’m done. Buying their overpriced models doesn’t even get you a better experience. No better than if I was fighting them over an aluminum GPS-only. Their poor manufacturing decision becomes the user’s problem when the tiny battery starts to fail, but not fail badly enough.

This is interesting after the class action about batteries they should absolutely let you pay to get a new battery no matter the percentage. I’d look closer in to this.

 

[bpb]

It does cause pause on running out and spending $800 on a new watch with the assumption that Apple will only support it for 3 years. Fool me once..... cant get fooled again.

They're not only supporting it for 3 years. There will be more than a few years of security updates.

I just don't understand this "If I can't run the very latest software the device is obsolete" thinking. It's weird. People say apple is forcing you to buy a new device. Nope. *YOU* are forcing yourself to buy a new device. I still have use a 2019 iMac that I use *every day*. It's stuck on sequoia. But it's still gotten 3 security updates this year. Works perfectly fine. Up until last year i had a nearly 10 year old iPad Pro. I'd still have it except someone decided it needed to be a new prototype foldable iPad...

The notion that a device is immediately obsolete the moment it doesn't get the latest OS is nonsense. And it'd not apple doing it. It's you.

 

[frou]

Apple customers get so mad at Apple for dropping support for a device, that they reward Apple by buying a new device! Apple simply cannot lose!

 

[Astuces iOS]

Apple did not need to explain, we all knew why !

 

[Entilzha]

Does it means those "older" models of AppleWatch will receive iOS 27 in countries where the new SiriAI won't be offered ??

No.

No it does not.

 

[therunningman]

It does cause pause on running out and spending $800 on a new watch with the assumption that Apple will only support it for 3 years. Fool me once..... cant get fooled again.

This does have the potential to really hurt future sales. I have an Ultra 2, so I imagine it's going to be on the chopping block soon.

Regarding watchOS 27, I just don't see anything that would push me to upgrade. Apple is actually removing functions, such as the app switcher. As for Siri Ai, it holds no interest to me. I use Siri on my watch mostly to set timers, and that's about it. Most of my runs are done in doors, and while the improved indoor running tracking sounds tempting, Fitiv Pulse (my workout program) allows me to edit the distance at the end of a workout to match the treadmill's numbers.

So for watchOS 27, I'm out.

 

[Entilzha]

To be honest…it sorta makes sense.

Those devices are the first ones that supported Siri directly on the watch itself without needing a network or phone connection active to respond to requests.

It’s too bad they couldn’t (or won’t) still add more of the watchOS 27 features to the older devices, but it does make sense from that perspective at least.

 

[walnuts]

This feels like their product marketing teams were out of step:

• Product: People hold on to watches for years and we frankly don't have the tech to make worthwhile upgrades frequently, so let's aim to make compelling upgrades (or combo of multiple slight upgrades) say every 8 years or so.
• Software/marketing: we only ever support for 4/5 years for hardware, dump all watches older than that

I have the original Ultra and I have zero desire to upgrade/replace it...the Ultra 2 and 3 are slight, fine improvements but frankly I don't think I'd notice the difference if I upgraded.

As others pointed out, they could have bifurcated Siri and everything else if that is the issue, but that is effort which is balanced against how many customers they make happy vs. annoy. I think they made that decision poorly this time.

 

[TechieGeek]

I wonder if he's aware that Ultra 1 and Ultra 2 are the same hardware except for the screen brightness, or if he's unaware and reading the sentences Comms gave him

 

[Finalcountdown]

Ok, so now we are concerned about the Siri experience?