Apple Says Fourth-Generation iPad Released in 2012 is Now Obsolete

[DFZD]

The iPad 3 or the first Retina iPad was also the first iPad I bought, until I moved to the iPad Air and then stopped using tablets for a few years. Last year got the iPad Mini 5 but let go in just 8 months. It felt fast but so old. Bought an iPad Pro 11 2020 few months ago. I'm totally in love with it. Would have loved a Mini Led screen but oh well.

I have always been iPad over an iPhone guy. The iPads are the best product line that Apple makes, and by a long margin.

 

[Wanted797]

Memories...

View attachment 1900503

As someone who waited and waited for the 3rd gen for the Retina display and it was my first iPad.I was very annoyed.

 

[Mahasamatman]

I wonder what support a galaxy tab from a year ago receives... hmm

Lineage OS or another third party if you’re lucky, Samsung not so much.

 

[Tagbert]

Was there a big difference between the iPad 3 and iPad 4 other than the switch to Lightning?

The 4 always felt like Apple wanting to finish the switch to Lightning. It looks practically identical except for the charging connector.

They upgraded the processor and the 4 was significantly faster, especially in screen updates. The 3 also was know to overheat easily with a lot of apps. The 3 seemed almost like a prototype in some ways but it was the first iPad with a retina screen and so lots of people bought it.

 

[pdaholic]

I, too, had the iPad 3, but can’t say I really cared when the 4 came out. The 3 was working fine for me back then, and that’s all that really mattered. I now have the 11 and 12.9 iPad Pros, and it’s amazing to think how the software and hardware have changed in many ways, and in other ways have remained the same.

 

[ayres]

the 4 made so much more sense as an upgrade from the 2.

 

[CarpalMac]

Was there a big difference between the iPad 3 and iPad 4 other than the switch to Lightning?

The 4 always felt like Apple wanting to finish the switch to Lightning. It looks practically identical except for the charging connector.

As others have mentioned, there was quite a performance bump.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I was always under the impression that one of the main reasons for the iPad fourth generation coming so quickly on the heels of the third generation was because Apple was moving all of their product launches at the time to the fall.
The iPhone had been launched in June/July for the first four models until the 4S in 2011, the first three iPads were launched in March/April, but starting in fall 2012 and lasting for a good 3-4 years Apple literally moved almost all of their product launches to the fall.
I think they realized that introducing an iPad every March was a barrier that stopped a lot of people from buying them for the Christmas season, and the iPhone being launched in the fall aligned much better with not only the holiday quarter, but also iOS development.
And they pretty much do the same thing today. Products that launch in the spring/summer usually are products that aren’t updated very often, like the iPad Pro or the iMac, which only see an update every 18 to 24 months.
All of their annual products, the iPhone, the budget iPad, the Apple Watch, all launch in September-November.

 

[Greenmeenie]

10 yrs is a long time. but I am sure it is still usable for surfing the web.

 

[cwwilson]

The iPad 4 was the first iPad I ever bought. I had gotten close to buying one before then but when the 4 came out that sealed the deal. It started my love for iPads in general and they are by far my favorite Apple product.

Good night, sweet Prince.

 

[the8thark]

We thank you for your service, iPad 4.

Yeah, I'm using our iPad 4 the same way.

iPad 3 and iPad 4 weight exactly the same
it was the earlier iPad 2 that weight less

The iPad 4 was the first iPad I ever bought.

So long iPad 4.

I had an iPad 4 for a short time!

iPad 4 was the real iPad 3.

iPad (4th Generation) is the correct name.

 

[Moyapilot]

My first iPad and apple product ever. I became a believer in the tablet form by ordering the Nexus 7, and then got this. It was heavy, but super solid and the battery life lasted forever. I fried the GPU playing Nova3 (a Halo knockoff) at the 6 month mark and got it replaced under warranty.

Great device. iOS6 and this tablet was such a beastly combo.

 

[rui no onna]

10 yrs is a long time. but I am sure it is still usable for surfing the web.

Only if you like being frustrated. While it’s a huge step up from the iPad 3, it’s still quite slow. Think Intel Atom PC. Actually, I believe the A6X is slower than the Intel Atom 330 that was available at the time. It’s just saved by iOS efficiency and practically no multitasking.

I used to have one iPad 4 on iOS 6 and another on iOS 10 until early this year. Even the OG Air offers a noticeable performance bump.

Standby battery on iOS 6 was great though. I could leave it alone for a month and it would still have enough juice for a couple hours web browsing. Meanwhile, I’d be lucky to get 2 weeks standby on the newer models on iOS 12+.

 

[sbuntin]

When Apple was a good brand, it was the user who decided when something was obsolete or not (and who was in control of not changing something when it just worked (TM)). And this was one of the strongest selling points of the Mac. Now Apple changed the game.

Er, no. Apple always decided when they would stop supplying parts and repairs. That is the definition of vintage/obsolete for Apple products. They also decide what older hardware will be supported by new software versions.

Older products will always be able to do what they could originally be used for... except for websites. Those evolve over time, so products will become less useful for online activities as time goes on. Would you really expect Apple to continue providing software updates to OS 7, 8, 9, 10.1, etc, to keep up with the web? That would be especially difficult as app developers also will not support those versions, and some of those apps are long gone. Eudora, Netscape, etc.

This has always been the case with Apple.

 

[organerito]

I gave my iPad 4 to my children, and it is still working great!

 

[lobbyist]

My first iPad! Still proudly stands in my kitchen for Slingbox streaming.

 

[beerseagulls]

10 years is a long time for any tech...

I sincerely hope the by 2031, all iPhones will become an obsolete technology and we will have something better than smartphones.

 

[Flight Plan]

I still have an iPad3, which I disabled the cellular on years ago. Today, it resides in the kitchen where I can look up recipes using WIFI, and have them in front of me while I am cooking.

If I do replace my newer iPad 12-point-whatever, I'll probably think about gifting that old one away or recycling it, because I'll have the newer one and the brand-new one. And two are enough.

 

[MacBH928]

9 years ain't bad at all, and it will continue to work! These seem to last more than their laptop computers.

One thing I like about iOS devices is that they are solid, they work like an appliance. Thy just keep working, old or new, they keep working. Remind me of Japanese manufacturing back in the 90s.

 

[Phantom iCloud tabs]

I owned this iPad until early 2017. I absolutely loved it!

 

[ZebraDude]

Apple classified the fourth-generation iPad as an obsolete product as of November 1, meaning the device is no longer eligible for hardware service worldwide, according to an internal memo obtained by MacRumors. The fourth-generation iPad has yet to be added to Apple's public-facing vintage and obsolete products list, but it should be soon.

Released in November 2012 alongside the original iPad mini, the fourth-generation iPad did away with Apple's classic 30-pin connector and adopted the Lightning connector that had debuted in the iPhone 5 just weeks earlier. The fourth-generation iPad also gained Apple's A6X chip for up to twice the CPU performance and up to twice the graphics performance of the A5X chip in the third-generation iPad that had launched in March 2012.

Apple also classified the Late 2012 model Mac mini as an obsolete product as of November 1, according to the memo.

Article Link: Apple Says Fourth-Generation iPad Released in 2012 is Now Obsolete

 

[ZebraDude]

I I understand why this guy has been crying. ?

 

[el-John-o]

Mine still chugging along for trivial duties.

It was “the last good Mac Mini” for a few years as it was better than it’s weaker dual core successors.

Yeah that was so bizarre; the switch from a desktop CPU to a mobile CPU.

My 2012 Mac Mini is a home server now. Plex transcoding, file server using a 5 drive USB RAID enclosure (bottlenecked by a gigabit connection anyway so wouldn't benefit from thunderbolt), etc.

 

[yegon]

Yeah that was so bizarre; the switch from a desktop CPU to a mobile CPU.

My 2012 Mac Mini is a home server now. Plex transcoding, file server using a 5 drive USB RAID enclosure (bottlenecked by a gigabit connection anyway so wouldn't benefit from thunderbolt), etc.

Oh yeah, I forgot they were mobile CPU’s! I just recalled them as being significant downgrades and 2012 models went for quite a premium second hand for a period.

 

[el-John-o]

Oh yeah, I forgot they were mobile CPU’s! I just recalled them as being significant downgrades and 2012 models went for quite a premium second hand for a period.

Yep. They were basically 13" MacBook Pro's without a screen.

Which seems to be the trend with the current Mac mini which is a bummer. An M1 Pro/Max Mac Mini would have been a really really compelling machine.