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

[GuruZac]

Yes I feel like they should support it but those users also got 5 years of support. It isn't like the phones aren't usable now, plus, newer hardware always has newer and better features.

 

[SRTM]

One more year for my iPhone 8....
I'm more disappointed that my Macbook pro 2016 wont work with Ventura

 

[alexandr]

Meh, I have a 7 that I keep as a back up jic, but I'm not mad at this — the phone is quite old. At the same time, I was a bit surprised, as Apple usually supports devices a bit longer(or so it seems).

 

[boshii]

Not everyone needs the greatest and latest.

If you don’t need the greatest and latest you shouldn’t be concerned with the greatest and latest iOS.

 

[CalMin]

For a phone as old as the 7, I think people should be happy that its even still working and operates quite smooth. Apple isn't bricking the iphone 7, you'll just be stuck on ios15 which has every feature you need. if people with a 7 need ios 16 so badly, then they have to decide if the cost of a new phone is worth it.

Came here to say this.

IP7 WILL STILL WORK WITH iOS 15. No-ones phone is getting bricked or obsoleted.

it will still work exactly the same as it does today for years to come.

 

[kc9hzn]

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.

You do realize that iOS != iPadOS, right, despite the fact that they share a considerable amount of code and a version number? Time and time again, iOS/iPadOS on the iPad has been out of sync with iOS on the phone. (Not getting 4.0 at launch, delays in getting the first 7.0 beta, delays in getting Home Screen widgets just two years ago. It’s clear that there’s enough difference between the two pieces of software that they could have justifiably be called two separate things long before Apple decided to do so.) Can the iOS 16 kernel boot on an A10 processor? Well, yeah. Can the common subset of userland system software boot up on an A10? Clearly, since iPadOS supports the A10. But it doesn’t necessarily follow from that that iOS 16 could run on an A10. The new Lock Screen features are an obvious place to point fingers at, since the iPadOS is lacking in it but supports A10 chips, but that might not even be the reason why.

 

[tfresquezdxs]

It's interesting that the 1st gen iPad pro which has a A9X chip and is supported but the iPhone 7 with A10 isn't.

 

[Piplodocus]

I don't really care my 6S won't get the next OS. But will it get security updates? For how long?

And obvs I want to update my Apple Watch series 5 to the new Watch OS too. Will it continue to work on WatchOS 9 with my 6S on iOS 15? 🤔

The phone is *occasionally* a bit slow, but most of the time it's plenty fast enough, works fine and does everything I want on a daily basis - it's a phone, internet browser, and an iPod, it doesn't need blazing performance to be perfectly functional. After a replacement up-rated battery and replacement lightning port earlier this year it's battery life is great and was gonna try stretch another year out til whatever the 2023 periscope camera / USB-C / whatever rumours you fancy, top-spec pro version comes out.

I just hate working tech going to landfill only due to software support, hence I don't care about all the latest features, only security updates. My High Sierra 2010 MBP was happily running til last year a good few years after it stopped getting MacOS updates. But it still had security ones. It just broke notes or reminders or something on the Mac if I wanted iCloud sync.

 

[katanna]

Apple: We want users to have the best experience, so we are going to limit what devices can run this OS.
Users: But now we feel left out!
Apple: OK, fine, you can run that OS.
Users: OMG MY PHONE IS SOOOO SLLLLOOOWWWWWWWWWW!!!
Apple: So maybe we won't give you all of the features???
Users: FOMO!!!!! We want everything!
Apple: WhAt dO yOU WanT FrOM mE?!?!?!?!?

Apple isn't "forcing" anyone to upgrade to a new phone. Technology moves fast, and there is a looooong history of "if you want the latest features, you may need new hardware".

To put it another way: I can understand if someone is disappointed that they can't get new features on their old hardware; I am sitting here typing this on a 2013 MBP that is stuck on Catalina because it is old. But that doesn't mean Apple is doing anything wrong or ought to change what it is doing. There is a separation between "I am disappointed" and "you [Apple] are wrong".

 

[Spaceboy88]

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.

But it's not.

What is so hard for people to understand:

iPhone 7

• A10 Fusion Chip

iPhone 8

• A11 Bionic Chip
• 2-core Neural Engine

The iPhone 8 is the lowest supported model and is the first to include the Neural Engine, which is at the heart of a lot of these improvements in iOS 16. iPhone 8 has a 30% faster GPU than the A10 Fusion chip and the two performance cores of the iPhone 8 are 25% faster than the iPhone 7.

The iPad 5th Generation has no customizable lock screen experience like iOS 16, so creating a more device-specific experience that can reach more older iPads is easier. Pulling the entire always-at-the-ready experience from the iPadOS codebase is something that you just can't do with iOS unless you want to have a dedicated team creating a fork of iOS 16 specific for non-Neural Engine devices, which makes zero business sense for Apple.

So stop with this planned obsolescence crap. If anyone has a legitimate gripe, it's the 2019 MacBook Pro users that saw their less-than-2-year-old Macs miss out on features in Monterey, and they weren't nearly the entitled cry babies that these Twitter/Reddit keyboard warriors are.

 

[Felix01]

Looks like I just barely escaped the Apple cut line this year for my iMac, MBP, iPhone and Watch. Wow, could be an expensive year if I want to keep up with the yearly updates. Since everything is still running satisfactorily, I probably won’t trade up as long as Apple continues to push security updates for the older operating systems.

 

[wanha]

Lots of people arguing with reality here...

 

[progx]

I could only imagine how these people would have been when OS X was announced. Just to find out their Mac (which isn’t a G3 or G4) can’t run it.

 

[wanha]

It is interesting how everyone attributes this to malice, and seems to have inside knowledge that "they could have supported all these things on the iPhone 7". Same with the M1/Stage manager. Amazing how many people have inside knowledge that "they could have supported the A12Z".

Mediocre minds always presume to know another person's or group's motives.

Usually, we do so with no proof whatsoever and will refuse to change our minds even when presented with proof to the contrary.

Such is the human creature.

 

[xRem]

As an Android user I am quite amused at some of the more disappointed reactions. In Android land, something like 2 to 3 years of support is standard. 5 years, like the 7 or 7S? Impossible. Even Google only guarantees non-security updates for 3 years on their Pixel phones.

 

[boshii]

Apple: We want users to have the best experience, so we are going to limit what devices can run this OS.
Users: But now we feel left out!
Apple: OK, fine, you can run that OS.
Users: OMG MY PHONE IS SOOOO SLLLLOOOWWWWWWWWWW!!!
Apple: So maybe we won't give you all of the features???
Users: FOMO!!!!! We want everything!
Apple: WhAt dO yOU WanT FrOM mE?!?!?!?!?

Apple isn't "forcing" anyone to upgrade to a new phone. Technology moves fast, and there is a looooong history of "if you want the latest features, you may need new hardware".

To put it another way: I can understand if someone is disappointed that they can't get new features on their old hardware; I am sitting here typing this on a 2013 MBP that is stuck on Catalina because it is old. But that doesn't mean Apple is doing anything wrong or ought to change what it is doing. There is a separation between "I am disappointed" and "you [Apple] are wrong".

Off topic but there’s a workaround to get the latest MacOS on your 2013 MBP. I have the same mac as you and it’s running Monterey without issue.

 

[Njmcq]

I will say to the people who believe that it should get iOS 16, be careful what you wish for.

I doubt anyone wants a repeat of what happened with the 4S on iOS 9. People would have inevitably complained had they kept it on iOS 7 or 8, but they gave it 9. And the result? A slow mess.

They recently settled a lawsuit for this, it’s a smart idea that they tread carefully with it going forward. I’d much rather an operable phone on an older version than a slow brick with some newer features.

 

[Martin81]

I am impressed that people are still using a 6 year old device, maybe it is time to upgrade to the iPhone 8

And face next year the same dilemma?
I'm perfectly happy with my iPhone 7 and look forward to using it some years longer.

 

[elfxmilhouse]

It shouldn't be a race to the bottom. Just because Android sucks doesn't give Apple permission to be as bad. The fact that Apple offered long-term OS support was a huge selling point previously. Especially on Macs, which easily last far more than 5 years today.

It doesn't "give them permission" but it gives them less reason to.

 

[darngooddesign]

Carriers have been offering aggressive trade in deals for years now; y'all should have upgraded by now.

 

[ediks]

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.

exactly this

 

[oofio2461]

I do expect Apple to follow up for a reason as to why they discontinued updates, as they know there will be backlash. The lock screen feature is probably the main reason why, causing limitations.

They could have not included the new lock screen and instead added small features, like better screen sharing and imessage edits.

 

[JM]

There was no reason for this iOS 16 is such a minor update the same as iOS 15 so it could of run fine, there’s nothing major that needs more power

It does seem like a minor update, but did you watch the event??? Holy cow! There is SO much neural processing going on with everything now!

I’m expecting to lose an hour of screen on time (SOT) with iOS 16 😩

 

[bobbie424242]

LOL. My iPhone 6 Plus has been locked in time into iOS 12 for years, while 6s+ phones were enjoying all new iOS versions until now. It's about time that 6s an 7 owners start to feel the pain !

 

[zone23]

Face it phones old end of story move on... can't afford a new phone? I get it so just keep using it what's the problem? I can't even image what the battery life must be like on a iPhone 7 LOL