Apple Faces User Backlash After Dropping Support for iPhone 7 From iOS 16

[hans1972]

Spoken like a true Apple executive! Why? If the phone still works, and is capable, why should anyone be forced to upgrade? Not everyone needs the greatest and latest.

If the iPhone 7 still allows these users to text, review their social media, etc, then that's great.

Because those users have a double standard.

They won't allow Apple to make a business decision (increase revenue from people upgrading) while their main reason for not upgrading is a business decision (to save money).

If it is acceptable for customers to make business decisions, it should also be acceptable for the opponent.

 

[JGIGS]

I suspect they dropped support because of the headline feature (new Lock Screen) probably needing the neural processor from the A11 and newer chips (to get that blurred background right). Since the iPads didn’t get this feature, they got away with it. That, and there are probably lots of A9/A10 iPads being used in schools.

It’s definitely not a matter of performance, though.

This seems to makes sense. I'm definitely not an expert on how internal hardware works but wonder if the ipads being larger and with that, can handle cooling a bit better then the iphones with the same chipsets?

 

[jav6454]

2018 was 4 years ago. almost 5 when the iOS update goes public.

Apple is known to support devices up to 7 years when they were last sold. As you stated, 5 years is 2 short of 7.

 

[averagenerd81]

Apple really can't win here. I would imagine this group would be the same group complaining that Apple slowed down their phone with iOS 16, blew up their battery or .. something else.

I am not saying I like the getting rid of the 7 in terms of support, I think having a supported phone for as long as possible is the best. But, people are going to complain no matter what.

 

[kc9hzn]

And I'm concerned about yours. It doesn't sound to me like you know much of what you're talking about.



Clearly.

I have some back end and full stack development experience professionally, mostly in the context of web applications. A good deal of my professional development experience is in automation development. But I do have experience writing reusable components and APIs, and I know how adding front end features often necessitates back end changes. I’ve certainly had to change (add to or even deprecate parts of) the API of my code to reflect new functionality in the front end, so I know all too well how interconnected they are. Your apparent lack of awareness of how front end and back end are interconnected is why I challenged your experience. While your general experience in the field is greater than mine, it looks like you’re a little lacking in API design and development. As a plugin writer, you’ve certainly consumed APIs, but it doesn’t look like you’ve written much code that’s intended for consumption by other code or other developers.

 

[cylack]

Not much sympathy here. I know Apple is one of the most greedy companies out there, but I think this is beyond simple greed and that they don’t want to support aging hardware indefintely. They know these same iphone 7 users would complain about the software being slow and draining battery life. These same folks can buy an iphone 8 on the used market for less than $100 if they want to run iOS 16 cheaply.

 

[boak]

It's just the damn Lock Screen feature that's causing all this. Apple clearly wants this to be the flagship feature for iOS 16 so that they can market the always-on display for the iPhone 14 Pro.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

It's actually a 2.5 year old iPhone - meaning, it was sold as new by Apple until September 10, 2019.

Go ahead and apply that logic to the Apple Watch Series 3.

 

[wonderings]

You have a 6 year old phone and you're still expecting software updates? I dunno about this.

what don't you know? Should we all just accept that tech is no longer usable after a certain end date? Should we put expiry labels on tech products to know how long it will be supported?

 

[Sf844]

what don't you know? Should we all just accept that tech is no longer usable after a certain end date? Should we put expiry labels on tech products to know how long it will be supported?

Sustainable, but not too much

 

[hans1972]

This article is proof at just how loyal and strong the Cult of Apple is because as pointed out in the article, the A10 chip is in many other Apple devices which are being supported by iOS 16 but not the A10 equipped iphone 7. As others have pointed out, it's 'planned obsolescence', Apple want's it customers to upgrade to newer phones and they are comming up with all sorts of excuses to try and justify when the iphone 7 has been excluded and the Cult of Apple is lapping it up by defending Apple's actions.

Apple want people to upgrade to newer phones, it's that simple as it gives Apple more money. If Apple dropped support for the A10 chip across the board then yes I can understand their reasoning but to say iOS 16 will be supported on some A10 devices but not the A10 iphone 7 is despicable behaviour in my opinion.

So when did Apple start the planning process?

 

[MRrainer]

People who care about iPhone 7 can still run iOS 15. They likely do not care about running the latest and greatest. Most head-line features wouldn't work anyway, even if iOS16 ran pro-forma.

I totally understand people not throwing away a perfectly working phone. I totally do not understand them complaining about not being able to run the latest OS.

One could make the argument that Apple should provide security-updates for a year after it provides OS-upgrades to hardware - but it might be that a lot of exploits these days require hardware-mitigation and thus unfixable on older hardware.

 

[boshii]

what don't you know? Should we all just accept that tech is no longer usable after a certain end date? Should we put expiry labels on tech products to know how long it will be supported?

No longer usable? The phone will still work just as it always has.

 

[lartola]

They can limit features on iPadOS 16 to M1 iPads but can't do the same with iOS 16?

iPhone 6s (Plus) and iPhone SE (1st generation) are as capable as iPad (5th generation). All are equipped with the A9 chip and have 2GB RAM. Yet, only the iPad will received iPadOS 16 updates.

Planned obsolesce right there.

The iPad doesn’t get the new lock screen features, though. As someone else already pointed out, that might be what makes the difference. All those little widgets on the lock screen might require a bit more processor power, and they won’t be on the iPad. Nonetheless, we know there must be a degree of planned obsolescence in that decision too.

 

[darngooddesign]

So when did Apple start the planning process?

We don't know, the 'Cabal of Malicious Intent' is forbidden from discussing it. They're a lot like Fight Club.

 

[millarj]

Spoken like a true Apple executive! Why? If the phone still works, and is capable, why should anyone be forced to upgrade? Not everyone needs the greatest and latest.

If the iPhone 7 still allows these users to text, review their social media, etc, then that's great.

Then IOS 15 should be fine then. I didn't hear anything about disabling IOS 15 on older hardware.

 

[rufwork]

Or, you know, just keep using iOS 15 on your iPhone 7 in 2023.

 

[boshii]

Apple is known to support devices up to 7 years when they were last sold. As you stated, 5 years is 2 short of 7.

That’s for service and parts.

 

[rufwork]

security concerns.

Don’t they keep patching for a while?

 

[CrazyForCashews]

People will complain about everything.

Be happy that they supported those ancient phones for this long.

 

[tbayrgs]

Love all the keyboard warriors and back seat OS developers online here claiming their expertise and certainty that a brand new version of an OS will work perfectly well on 6 year old hardware.

First, the phone isn’t going to stop working, it just won’t get any of the new features and functionality of iOS 16. If you like how it works on iOS 15 now, guess what, it’ll keep running like that for the foreseeable future as well. And if I had a dollar for every time I heard someone with an older phone claim ‘I was forced to update my phone to iOS XX and now it’s so slow and the battery life sucks,’ I’d be a wealthy man.

Second, it’s a SIX YEAR OLD phone. If you still can’t find it in your means to upgrade (save $200 a year and you can buy just about any iPhone you want outright), be grateful it’s still supported by Apple and received 6 years of software updates in the first place. Guarantee not a single Android phone in the world has had as good support—not one, anywhere.

 

[kc9hzn]

Then IOS 15 should be fine then. I didn't hear anything about disabling IOS 15 on older hardware.

I think he’s attributing the bold bit to the user he’s replying to. Which is kind of a stupid argument, because, at some point, it no longer makes sense to maintain older hardware (especially when, through hardware attrition, it no longer has much market share). Like, who’s using an iPhone 5s, 6, or 6s as a daily driver? They might account for somewhere between 0.01% and 0.1% of actively used iPhones.

 

[boak]

The iPad doesn’t get the new lock screen features, though. As someone else already pointed out, that might be what makes the difference. All those little widgets on the lock screen might require a bit more processor power, and they won’t be on the iPad. Nonetheless, we know there must be a degree of planned obsolescence in that decision too.

I agree. They could have disabled the Lock Screen features for the 5 models but they made a decision not to. It's a shame because the other new features are very useful.

 

[chrono1081]

I have some back end and full stack development experience professionally, mostly in the context of web applications. A good deal of my professional development experience is in automation development. But I do have experience writing reusable components and APIs, and I know how adding front end features often necessitates back end changes. I’ve certainly had to change (add to or even deprecate parts of) the API of my code to reflect new functionality in the front end, so I know all too well how interconnected they are. Your apparent lack of awareness of how front end and back end are interconnected is why I challenged your experience. While your general experience in the field is greater than mine, it looks like you’re a little lacking in API design and development. As a plugin writer, you’ve certainly consumed APIs, but it doesn’t look like you’ve written much code that’s intended for consumption by other code or other developers.

And there’s the second childish personal attack from you. You’re wrong, I do both front and back end and it’s clear to me you don’t know much about iOS development since you don’t seem to grasp how views that are already present when you serious up can be rearranged to how stage a manger arranges them.

Yes there is a little more work than just translating views but it’s nothing any current iPad can handle.

 

[jav6454]

That’s for service and parts.

And software.