How important is the dual-core chip in the new iPad to it's iOS update longevity?

[anthrovisual]

Is it going to be like iPhone 3G and iOS4?

I've had the iPhone 3G since 11/2008 and entered a world of pain when iOS 4 was released in 2010. I believe now that the iPhone 3G was destined for a short life because it came with the 1st iPhone's CPU, RAM, and graphics. Now the 3rd generation iPad might not be as handicapped (2x the RAM and graphics), but I'm hesitant to believe the dual-core CPU won't hold it back prematurely like the iPhone 3G. Besides, isn't the added graphics and RAM going to be preoccupied with the Retina display than to offer endurance?

 

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Looking back, the iPhone 3G was pretty slow even in its heyday. The 2012 iPad is much faster, and I think you'll get quite a few releases out of it.

Look at the 3GS, for instance. First sold in 2009, and still fully up-to-date. I'm sure the 2012 iPad will get us to at least iOS 8, and perhaps beyond.

 

[whtrbt7]

The iPhone 3G back in the day was grossly underpowered but efficient. Back then Apple was still outsourcing chips in order to get things to work. Now, since Apple has it's own semi-conductor unit, they can print out chips anytime they want and more powerful than before. In terms of longevity, the new A chips such as the A4, A5, and now the A5X lines are pretty much ahead of the game due to it's internal architecture. You'll see that there is enough power to drive the display and also all the internals. All of the A chips are designed to last around 3-4 years but Apple still recommends an upgrade every 1-2 years depending on the latest tech.

 

[aneftp]

iPhone 3G was essentially identical phone (processor RAM, camera) as original iPhone 2007. obviously they added a 3G and GPS chip and ....called it a "new model"

So by the time iOS 4 rolled out in summer 2010. iPhone 3 G was considered about 3 years old in terms of tech.

And that's one of the reasons iPhone 3GS still lives on. Cause it's approaching it's 3 year life span this summer.

So don't think of iPhone 3G as 2008 tech. It was really 2007 tech specs.

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iPad 2012 model should last you 3 years should you choose to keep it that long.

In terms of functionality.

 

[macguy360]

Is it going to be like iPhone 3G and iOS4?

I've had the iPhone 3G since 11/2008 and entered a world of pain when iOS 4 was released in 2010. I believe now that the iPhone 3G was destined for a short life because it came with the 1st iPhone's CPU, RAM, and graphics. Now the 3rd generation iPad might not be as handicapped (2x the RAM and graphics), but I'm hesitant to believe the dual-core CPU won't hold it back prematurely like the iPhone 3G. Besides, isn't the added graphics and RAM going to be preoccupied with the Retina display than to offer endurance?

The graphics processor will be handling the display side of things and is more than capable of handling it for several years to come. The dual core cpu is also more than capable of handling several more years because of the way that IOS is designed. Apple designed IOS to be extremely energy efficient to where multiple apps aren't truely running at the same time. Even if you minimize an app it goes into a sleep type mode for that app until you come back to it.

I imagine the iPad 4 will feature a quad core CPU built on a smaller architecture as well as the gpu being built on a smaller architecture but I don't think there will be a huge difference in performance. If anything the iPad 1 will probably become somewhat obsolete (it already has trouble crashing on games designed for iPad 2) but that is mostly due to the ram. The 1gb of ram on the iPad 3 should ensure quite a long time of longevity. I plan on keeping mine for at least 3 years if not more.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Given Apple's past releases, plan on your 'current' generation iDevice being obsoleted in two generations.

 

[SuperRob]

Shouldn't be an issue. Even though the A5X is the same dual-core CPU as the iPad 2, and running at the same speed, it's still the fastest mobile CPU in any Apple product. You should continue getting iOS updates for at least three years. And it's not like after that the iPad becomes a doorstop.

 

[admanimal]

Given Apple's past releases, plan on your 'current' generation iDevice being obsoleted in two generations.

Except as of tomorrow we'll have 3 generations of phones and 3 generations of iPads, all of which fully support the latest version of iOS.

 

[homeboy]

Software engineers tend to develop for the lowest common denominator and currently it's the A5 chip. Any apps and games brought to market in the next 2 years will be written to run on the iPad 2 and iPad 3 rather well.

I won't be doing an iPad upgrade next year. I'm intending for my iPad 3 to serve its purpose for at least 2 years.

 

[kiranmk2]

I'm currently looking to get my first iPad and it's between the new one (£470) and a refurb iPad2 (£360). 4G is pretty useless for us in the UK (we don't have LTE and even when we do it will be a different frequency), I don't intend to use the camera so it pretty much boils down to the screen and the RAM.

As far as I can tell the iPad2 and the iPad3 will perform exactly the same with all the extra horsepower in the 3 used to run the display. Now obviously the retina display would be better but I wonder about the RAM - I did think that this might keep it in the game for longer regarding iOS updates but I can't help thinking that if a large portion of this goes to power the quad-core graphics then it will be no better off than the iPad 2 in terms of longevity.