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

[Lubidubi]

The iPhone 7 doesn't have the necessary hardware required for the lock screen part of iOS16, and maybe even some other parts, which is why it isn't supported.

Lol.. this new lockscreen is no special magic that an iPhone 7 couldn‘t handle it. Apple just don’t want to support it anymore. They made a mistake (from their point of view) to support the 6s that long. So they ditch the 6s and 7 together that people will upgrade.
I have an 8 on ios 16 and really there is nothing special about this lockscreen. You can add some more stuff on it but for real. No reason to ditch the 7.
the 7 plus runs better on iOS 15 than an 8 on iOS 15 because the 7+ has 3 gigs of ram.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I’m have an 8 on ios 16 and really there is nothing special about this lockscreen. You can add some more stuff on it but for real. No reason to ditch the 7.

100%

They just don't want to support certain models anymore.

 

[Lubidubi]

Forced obsolescence. It's nothing new. Hardware has been so good for many years now, the only way they can force you to upgrade is by obsoleting it firstly from from OS updates then from security updates.

Nothing to add!

 

[AlexMac89]

No no no

We don't get to do this kind of both sides arguing on Apple's behalf

A huge reason a lot of folks choose Apple is to specifically not have to think about this kind of stuff.
They count on Apple to not be pulling the rug out like this.

If you, or any other Apple customer, is purchasing items that generally fall in the price brackets above $800 without thinking about it, then yes, the problem IS you.

I don’t care who the company is, and how much things “just work”. If you don’t do some basic research when spending the better part of, if not over, a thousand usd then you have no right to complain.

Apples products and features are always easy to compare. Resellers have feature cards. Apples website has the “compare” feature to see several items and specs side by side.

This is not apple pulling the rug out. This is apple moving on from support of a device launched in 2016, and an ultimately small number of users blaming apple rather than take personal responsibility for their purchasing decisions. Nothing new here really.

Edit: Also, please do not tell me what I can or cannot do 🙄 I’m not “arguing on apples behalf”, though I am more than welcome to do so if I please. I’m arguing against your idea that the only right way to run a multi trillion dollar business is to do exactly as you say 🙄🙄

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

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?

There are plenty of people still using the iPhone 5S and 6 on iOS 12.4.X and it works just fine for them.
There are still some people on the iPhone 5 and 5C on iOS 10.3.6 or whatever number it’s gotten up to now, and it still works fine for them.
There are still some people out there who are using the iPhone 4S on iOS 9.3 (or who downgraded to iOS 8 or iOS 6 when that became possible), and their phone still calls and texts like they need it to.
Just like all of these people, there are plenty of iPhone 6S, SE1 and 7 customers who are going to continue using their phones on iOS 15.6 and Forward and their phones are going to continue to serve their needs for years to come.
Apple will continue to provide them with security updates when necessary, the majority of third-party applications will continue to work just fine for at least the next two years, some even longer than that, they still have several years of Apple providing battery replacements and hardware support, The carriers certainly won’t be losing support for the LTE anytime soon.
The only people who are truly upset about this are either in the extreme minority, or will be getting a new phone anyway.

 

[kc9hzn]

No no no

We don't get to do this kind of both sides arguing on Apple's behalf

A huge reason a lot of folks choose Apple is to specifically not have to think about this kind of stuff.
They count on Apple to not be pulling the rug out like this.

But what’s the reasonable time frame? Let’s consider the 2013 Mac Pro. Is it reasonable for someone who bought it in 2019 to expect more than 2 or 3 years of updates? There has to be a reasonable support time frame, and the argument goes that this support time frame decreases the longer the hardware’s been on sale or the longer since its introduction. And some people in this thread have mentioned the second hand market. Do you have any reasonable expectation for support when you buy from the resell market? If so, how long?

Do you have a number of how long you’d expect software update support for post purchase? And do you complain any about Android manufacturers who drop current OS support for old devices every time a new major version of Android comes out?

 

[boshii]

Then they shouldn't have been selling them brand new to folks in 2019

They were selling them for $449. The age of the phone was baked into the price. You think it should receive updates as long as the iPhone 11 since they were also selling that phone in 2019?

 

[kc9hzn]

100%

They just don't want to support certain models anymore.

That’s a bare assertion without evidence. Or it’s just an opinion and likely an unreasonable one.

 

[Sigvard]

The amount of Apple bootlickers and apologists in this thread is disheartening but unsurprising.

 

[Student of Life]

Then they shouldn't have been selling them brand new to folks in 2019

Caveat emptor

 

[Lubidubi]

Apple will continue to provide them with security updates when necessary, the majority of third-party applications will continue to work just fine for at least the next two years, some even longer than that, they still have several years of Apple providing battery replacements and hardware support, The carriers certainly won’t be losing support for the LTE anytime soon.
The only people who are truly upset about this are either in the extreme minority, or will be getting a new phone anyway.

If your serious about security, you won’t use an outdated OS. We do have so many stuff on our phones now, that we couldn’t imagine 10 plus years ago.
Passwords for nearly everything (iCloud Keychain), private notes, fotos, Banking apps, crypto wallets, creditcards, driver licenses and much much more you don’t want to get stolen by Someone caused by a security hole in the iOS.
And as we know, apple never fixes all security holes on older iOS releases. They fix the latest release and might fix some bugs on older ones. As it is with macOS and this is really a big problem apple should address. But apple makes money with new hardware and that’s why they act like that.
I can’t get it why some people here defend apples behavior.
Microsoft does it different. You can install Win 10 on a 2008 Mac / PC and get security updates till 2025!

 

[turbineseaplane]

I can’t get it why some people here defend apples behavior.

It's like so many circles of identity out there now

Folks really relish a sense of belonging to things and are nowadays, more than ever it seems, absorbing corporate ideology into their personhood and status and how they feel about their purchases and even themselves and their own value(s).

The Tesla cult is a good example.
Apple definitely has its own version of that

It's so...."odd" to me
It feels very much accelerated by the internet

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I love how it’s planned obsolescence when a company drops support for older hardware but it’s also planned obsolescence when a company tries to avoid dropping support for hardware and even potentially holds back software to prevent obsoleting older hardware. That’s how you can tell the argument is planned obsolescence and the facts have to be manipulated to support the argument.

It’s just that the arguments for the existence of planned obsolescence remind me so much of the sorts of conspiracy theories I saw back when I used Twitter. Evidence that could be used against it gets mangled to support it in some way, and any grain of truth gets wildly exaggerated, “see, my theory is true because this patently obvious thing is true” even if they aren’t connected. It doesn’t help that most of these sorts of ideas often have two layers, there’s the straightforward “okay, I can see how you’d use that term to describe this phenomenon” and then there’s the point where people go off the deep end and ascribe everything they like or dislike about the subject to that term, stretching the definition of the term past the point of breaking.

Pretty much.
Does Apple introduce features for their latest products that could easily run on their older products but don’t simply to entice customers to upgrade? Of course they do, and they have a long history of doing so.
Siri: was an iPhone 4S exclusive feature, but could easily run on the 4 and even the 3GS.
That’s the biggest example I can think of, but they’ve done plenty of tiny things over the years. The new ringtone, reflection, was an iPhone X exclusive, despite the fact that it’s… Literally just a ringtone.
But that is not planned obsolescence, that’s just called marketing.
Supporting a phone for six years is not planned obsolescence. They’re still going to continue with security updates, most third-party applications are still going to work just fine, nothing is going to be broken for several more years to come.
Does Apple want you to upgrade? Of course they do.
Are they forcing you to upgrade? Absolutely not. All of these older phones still work fine.
They still do exactly what they were originally advertised to do when they were released.
You want *new* features and functionality that wasn’t originally there when you purchased the phone? Sometimes you just have to pay the price.

 

[Lubidubi]

It's like so many circles of identity out there now
People absorb corporate ideology into their personhood and status and how they feel about their purchases and even themselves and their own value(s).

The Tesla cult is a good example.
Apple definitely has its own version of that

I don’t get it.
I prefer iOS over android and macOS over windows but how apple addresses security updates is no good.

 

[Sigvard]

It's like so many circles of identity out there now

Folks really relish a sense of belonging to things and are nowadays, more than ever it seems, absorbing corporate ideology into their personhood and status and how they feel about their purchases and even themselves and their own value(s).

The Tesla cult is a good example.
Apple definitely has its own version of that

It's so...."odd" to me
It feels very much accelerated by the internet

Historically, one can ever argue that Apple was one of the first companies to have a rabid and cultist following...

 

[nicolas_s]

The amount of Apple bootlickers and apologists in this thread is disheartening but unsurprising.

I agree. Shame on Apple for this move, this is the kind of thing that make me wanna switch to Android.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

In the time iPhone 7 came out, I (in order):

- Bought an iPhone 7
- Obtained a visa to move to the United States
- Sold my old car
- Moved to the USA
- Got married
- Obtained a green card
- Got a job
- Bought a car on a loan
- Got promoted
- Paid off said car
- Got promoted again
- Became a US citizen
- Bought a house
- Got promoted yet again

The iPhone 7 has been out for a while, yeah. I’ve also upgraded my phone several times in that timeline, currently on an iPhone 13 Pro Max.

We’ve been through two different presidents in the US since the iPhone 7 was announced.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Historically, one can ever argue that Apple was one of the first companies to have a rabid and cultist following...

You're absolutely right
The internet has even accelerated it as now all can congregate digitally

 

[GadgetBen]

I’m guessing these moany people still run the same iOS it came with too. 🙄

 

[turbineseaplane]

I’m guessing these moany people still run the same iOS it came with too. 🙄

Funny you mention that
Many folks with older devices would LOVE the ability to downgrade iOS

Apple doesn't allow it

 

[paas]

Apple is very dishonest
Hello. I do not want to be vulgar so I will not write what I think about people who write that the iPhone 7 is too old and you just need to buy a new phone. Some people feel hurt to think.
Imagine someone buys an iPhone 7 in 2018. He has a choice of cheaper 6s and more expensive 7. He chooses 7 because logically, the phone a year younger will be supported at least a year longer. As it turns out, this is not the case. Apple stops supporting two generations at once. Those who bought the iPhone 6s are favored over those who bought the iPhone 7 as their phone gets a year more support. Choosing the phone myself, I bought a more expensive 7, only because I assumed that it would have longer support. If Apple is abandoning 2 generations at once, nothing to do with it, why can't it ditch 3 or 4? Can do it. Because people allow it with stupid comments about the shame of having 7. Last sentence: imagine that you buy an iPhone 11 (worse screen than iPhone 10, larger frames, but theoretically longer support) and suddenly it turns out that it is abandoned with the iPhone x. How would you feel?
I don't even want to talk about dropping support for not old macbooks. Time to switch from Apple to something else.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Some developers will start to support only iOS 16 for their apps as soon as it comes out in september, which is the foreseeable future. That does obsolete a device not getting that update.

The amount of developers who would do that is extremely slim.
To start with, the majority of developers understand that users don’t get the latest iOS immediately in September. Apple usually doesn’t start the complete roll out to everyone automatically updating until October/November, sometimes even later.
Secondly, I just open the App Store and looked at a whole bunch of apps, some of the most popular, some quite obscure.
Almost all of them to this day still support iOS 14, tons of them still support iOS 13, plenty still support iOS 12, and quite a few still support iOS 11.
I even found one or two that go all the way back to iOS 10.
Even most of the banking apps I looked at go all the way back to iOS 13.
Apps that require iOS 15 are extremely rare, and apps that require iOS 16 will be even more rare for quite a while.
iPhone 7 customers truly don’t have anything to worry about, unless they really want a new lock screen in which case you’re out of luck

 

[fabian9]

Your question has been directly discussed and answered many times over, right here in the thread.

Don’t have time to read 400 replies unfortunately, but it seems like a bit of a pointless discussion.

1) nobody here knows the actual reasons for why iPhone 7 is not supported.
2) iPhone 7 users are no worse off than when they bought their phones.
3) this happens every year and is normal.

 

[kc9hzn]

The amount of developers who would do that is extremely slim.
To start with, the majority of developers understand that users don’t get the latest iOS immediately in September. Apple usually doesn’t start the complete roll out to everyone automatically updating until October/November, sometimes even later.
Secondly, I just open the App Store and looked at a whole bunch of apps, some of the most popular, some quite obscure.
Almost all of them to this day still support iOS 14, tons of them still support iOS 13, plenty still support iOS 12, and quite a few still support iOS 11.
I even found one or two that go all the way back to iOS 10.
Even most of the banking apps I looked at go all the way back to iOS 13.
Apps that require iOS 15 are extremely rare, and apps that require iOS 16 will be even more rare for quite a while.
iPhone 7 customers truly don’t have anything to worry about, unless they really want a new lock screen in which case you’re out of luck

Now, obviously, apps that are exclusively designed to take advantage of the new features, like a version of Watchsmith or Widgetsmith for the lock screen, those would be iOS 16 exclusive from day one. But yes, few apps only actively maintain support for the current OS release, and those are almost exclusively apps that specifically rely on new features in that current OS release, they usually don’t drop the current release when the new one comes out.

 

[HVDynamo]

It won’t stop working, but it also likely won’t receive any more security updates. Unless Apple decides to keep patching iOS 15, which they haven’t stated.

Typically I think security update patches will continue for 2-3 years after the OS is superseded. So I think anyone with an iPhone 7 is still good for 2 years minimum from a security standpoint.