iPad Apple has supported the iPad 2 for 2000 days

[masotime]

If you had any concerns about "planned obsolescence" by Apple, WSJ has produced a really nice article with great graphics tracing how long Apple has supported older devices with iOS releases.

http://graphics.wsj.com/the-ios-cutoff/

 

[sdz]

Very impressive!

 

[Savor]

Yup. Likes mine. Not love it. I like it way more than my ASUS. The only hand-me-down and iOS device I currently own and don't plan on selling.

Battery is like new. I get 10-11+ hr SOT. Only on iOS 8.3. Is slow at browsing and occasionally stutter at scrolling fast. Nice loud speaker. Watch my Bob Ross videos at night with it. Cool device to have just for videos and songs.

Of course Samsung's foldable displays can change things for future iPads... Less footprint when closed.

 

[sracer]

Change the scale on that chart from "Days" to "Hours" and it could be used to track Samsung tablets.

 

[Savor]

The "planned obsolescence" is for the iPhone 4s.

Same A5 chip. Came out months after the iPad 2 but with iOS5 first. Never got updated to iOS10. And the iPhone 4s probably sold 10x more than an iPad 2. Of course, 4s owners had to deal with iOS9 which slowed their devices to molasses already last year and had people suing!

iOS10
Yay for iPad 2
Nay for iPhone 4s

So kudos to Apple for supporting iPad 2 this long. Boo them for not supporting the iPhone 4s owners out there. Seems like the faster planned obsolescence will go to the more popular product line.

Apple wants your new iPhone purchases at four years tops while iPads can last half a decade since not everyone upgrades as frequently with tablets.

 

[FSMBP]

If you had any concerns about "planned obsolescence" by Apple, WSJ has produced a really nice article with great graphics tracing how long Apple has supported older devices with iOS releases.

http://graphics.wsj.com/the-ios-cutoff/

View attachment 652760

Want to know why iPad 2 was supported so long? It the first device iPad they sold to education (in HUGE massive quantities I may add). Had they pulled support quickly, Apple's education customers would have flipped.

 

[barkomatic]

The iPad 2 was an unusually high powered device at the time it was released which is why Apple has been able to support it for so long. They seem to have shifted their strategy since then to encourage more frequent update cycles.

 

[bhayes444]

The "planned obsolescence" is for the iPhone 4s.

Same A5 chip. Came out months after the iPad 2 but with iOS5 first. Never got updated to iOS10. And the iPhone 4s probably sold 10x more than an iPad 2. Of course, 4s owners had to deal with iOS9 which slowed their devices to molasses already last year and had people suing!

iOS10
Yay for iPad 2
Nay for iPhone 4s

So kudos to Apple for supporting iPad 2 this long. Boo them for not supporting the iPhone 4s owners out there. Seems like the faster planned obsolescence will go to the more popular product line.

Apple wants your new iPhone purchases at four years tops while iPads can last half a decade since not everyone upgrades as frequently with tablets.

Apple doesn't support the iPad 2 anymore. Both the iPad 2 and iPhone 4s saw support cut off at iOS 9.3.5. I don't know why you would expect them to support the 4s longer than they did, since it and the iPad 2 have the same A5 chip and 512MB of RAM?

 

[Michael Goff]

The "planned obsolescence" is for the iPhone 4s.

Same A5 chip. Came out months after the iPad 2 but with iOS5 first. Never got updated to iOS10. And the iPhone 4s probably sold 10x more than an iPad 2. Of course, 4s owners had to deal with iOS9 which slowed their devices to molasses already last year and had people suing!

iOS10
Yay for iPad 2
Nay for iPhone 4s

So kudos to Apple for supporting iPad 2 this long. Boo them for not supporting the iPhone 4s owners out there. Seems like the faster planned obsolescence will go to the more popular product line.

Apple wants your new iPhone purchases at four years tops while iPads can last half a decade since not everyone upgrades as frequently with tablets.

iPad 2 isn't getting iOS 10 either. No A5 device is getting iOS 10. They supported the 4S just fine.

 

[braddick]

With 108 million iPhone4S's sold and 52 million iPad 2's the ratio is nowhere close to being "10 X 1" described above.

 

[icymountain]

The iPad 2 was discontinued in March 2014. So, while it was indeed supported over a long period, the last buyers still see end of support before the duration of an Apple Care. Definitely not bad for the early adopters (I was one!), but not that good for the late purchasers.

 

[pika2000]

iPhone 5 will take the crown next, and it still runs iOS 10 fairly well.
Meanwhile, Google already dropped the Nexus 5, a phone that is released less than 3 years ago. (Sure Qualcomm is at fault, but that tells you that win android, you are at the mercy of so many parties for updates)

 

[Channan]

iPhone 5 will take the crown next, and it still runs iOS 10 fairly well.
Meanwhile, Google already dropped the Nexus 5, a phone that is released less than 3 years ago. (Sure Qualcomm is at fault, but that tells you that win android, you are at the mercy of so many parties for updates)

I doubt it. I see 32-bit being the reason the iPhone 5 gets cut off early. I think the next device to last as long as the iPad 2, if not longer, is the iPad Air 2.

But the iPad 2 has the benefit of launching around half a year before iOS 5 came out, so it sort of gives it a slight advantage in how long it's supported for.

 

[rui no onna]

I doubt it. I see 32-bit being the reason the iPhone 5 gets cut off early. I think the next device to last as long as the iPad 2, if not longer, is the iPad Air 2.

But the iPad 2 has the benefit of launching around half a year before iOS 5 came out, so it sort of gives it a slight advantage in how long it's supported for.

Probably won't be until at least iOS 11 before Apple drops support for A6 so these should still get one more year left. Nice thing with the A6 is they didn't suffer from lag as badly as older CPU/GPU did with subsequent iOS updates. I think A6 is the point where we started getting diminishing returns with CPU/GPU upgrades. If Apple's willing to extend 32-bit support a little bit longer, I reckon the iPhone 5/5c and iPad 4 would cope well enough. Better than the iPad 3 at any rate.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6330/the-iphone-5-review/9

 

[Channan]

Probably won't be until at least iOS 11 before Apple drops support for A6 so these should still get one more year left. Nice thing with the A6 is they didn't suffer from lag as badly as older CPU/GPU did with subsequent iOS updates. I think A6 is the point where we started getting diminishing returns with CPU/GPU upgrades. If Apple's willing to extend 32-bit support a little bit longer, I reckon the iPhone 5/5c and iPad 4 would cope well enough. Better than the iPad 3 at any rate.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6330/the-iphone-5-review/9

No doubt the iPhone 5 couldn't handle more updates, but I just feel Apple will end support prematurely for the 32-bit processor alone.

 

[DCIFRTHS]

iPad 2 isn't getting iOS 10 either. No A5 device is getting iOS 10. They supported the 4S just fine.

As an iPad 2 owner, I can't agree. Just because a device "supports" a new software version does not mean that the device runs it properly. My iPad 2 is unusable with iOS 9.x.

As far as the article is concerned: It reads like a paid Apple ad. It should have addressed user experience on the new OS instead of wether or not you could just install it.

 

[joeblow7777]

As an iPad 2 owner, I can't agree. Just because a device "supports" a new software version does not mean that the device runs it properly. My iPad 2 is unusable with iOS 9.x.

As far as the article is concerned: It reads like a paid Apple ad. It should have addressed user experience on the new OS instead of wether or not you could just install it.

The school I teach at has sets of iPad 2s on iOS 9.3.5. They're not as speedy as current devices, but I find them to be fully usable. Impressively so, in my opinion.

 

[DCIFRTHS]

The school I teach at has sets of iPad 2s on iOS 9.3.5. They're not as speedy as current devices, but I find them to be fully usable. Impressively so, in my opinion.

Maybe we have different thresholds for what is considered useable.
I will have to take a video and post it.

Mine lags way behind my typing. Do yours?

 

[sracer]

As an iPad 2 owner, I can't agree. Just because a device "supports" a new software version does not mean that the device runs it properly. My iPad 2 is unusable with iOS 9.x.

As far as the article is concerned: It reads like a paid Apple ad. It should have addressed user experience on the new OS instead of wether or not you could just install it.

They probably didn't address user experience because that is difficult to quantify. They could've given their experience, but it would be just that... THEIR experience. If they were reviewing iOS 9.x on an iPad 2 and their experience was that it was surprisingly useable, that would not be helpful to you as YOUR experience is that your iPad 2 is UNUSABLE with iOS 9.x. Your first-hand experience supersedes theirs.

The school I teach at has sets of iPad 2s on iOS 9.3.5. They're not as speedy as current devices, but I find them to be fully usable. Impressively so, in my opinion.

Every iPad that I've ever purchased (1, 2, 4, Air 2, 12.9 iPP) is still in regular use today.

The iPad 2 w/iOS 9 is indeed impressively still usable. But if I had my choice, I'd like to be able to downgrade it to iOS 6.x.

The iPad 1 running iOS 5 can obviously do less but what it does it still does as smoothly and responsively as they day it was new.

 

[psac]

I just setup my mother-in-law with our old iPad2 on 9.3.5 this weekend. It was totally perfect for her and absolutely completely usable. It works like a 5+ year old device, but it still very much works.

 

[DCIFRTHS]

They probably didn't address user experience because that is difficult to quantify. They could've given their experience, but it would be just that... THEIR experience. If they were reviewing iOS 9.x on an iPad 2 and their experience was that it was surprisingly useable, that would not be helpful to you as YOUR experience is that your iPad 2 is UNUSABLE with iOS 9.x. Your first-hand experience supersedes theirs.



Every iPad that I've ever purchased (1, 2, 4, Air 2, 12.9 iPP) is still in regular use today.

The iPad 2 w/iOS 9 is indeed impressively still usable. But if I had my choice, I'd like to be able to downgrade it to iOS 6.x.

The iPad 1 running iOS 5 can obviously do less but what it does it still does as smoothly and responsively as they day it was new.

You bring up valid points. Thanks for the unbiased post. Unfortunately, I am stuck with an unacceptable iPad

 

[rui no onna]

No doubt the iPhone 5 couldn't handle more updates, but I just feel Apple will end support prematurely for the 32-bit processor alone.

Alas, I'd have to agree on this point.

 

[Math889]

No doubt the iPhone 5 couldn't handle more updates, but I just feel Apple will end support prematurely for the 32-bit processor alone.

And this will probably happen next year .
[doublepost=1474298342][/doublepost]

The school I teach at has sets of iPad 2s on iOS 9.3.5. They're not as speedy as current devices, but I find them to be fully usable. Impressively so, in my opinion.

My friend has an iPad 2 with iOS 9.3.5 .I used it one time . It's slow , unusable. Even when you open photos app it is slow.

 

[sracer]

You bring up valid points. Thanks for the unbiased post. Unfortunately, I am stuck with an unacceptable iPad

I completely empathize with you. My iPad 4 has never run as well on anything after iOS 6 as it did on iOS 6.

 

[Floris]

My sister is still enjoying my first ipad, the ipad2, and she loves it. It's great that Apple has some support for it then.