iOS 17 Rumored to Drop Support for iPhone X, First-Generation iPad Pro, and More

[Mr Rib]

I just dropped out of the whole upgrade thing, years ago. App won't update any more and can't use anymore? Oh well, your app is deleted HAHAHAHA! Feels great. Marketing through fake obsolescence is evil. It's their game, I have no say in the rulemaking. But I can choose not to play. They can go to Hell. 🤣

Makes sense. I'm a working pro, I animate and do motion design among other things with files up to hundreds of layers in PS / project files as big as 2-3 gb with no photos in them, AE files with 50-100 of layers per comp, with multiple comps per project, with tons of very resource consuming 3rd party plugins and I'm doing it on a late 2014 Retina 5K iMac + now quite old Wacom Cintiq 27 QHD + eventhough I have access to full Adobe CS, I prefer to work on 2010 editions because since then it's just been a bunch of belts and whistles and a huuge drop in performance (Adobe is like "we won't optimise, it's too expensive - we are making only 1 billion a year on subscription plans, you should just buy a new computer every 12 months!") ... Maybe a year ago I figured it's time to move to Apple silicon but waiting for M3.
I definitely feel you, we live in a fake world of consumptionism bloated to grotesque proportions...
I also find it very funny how all these tech youtubers keep this wheel spinning and post their charts and comparisons of bleeding edge stuff, while doing some automated, bs generic tasks and don't even have an idea how to really use the computing power they are reviewing - because they are too amateur and a Mac Mini / a set of Mac Minis would suffice their needs for next 3+ years

 

[deckard666]

Forced upgrades.

it still works doesn't it ?

 

[Paddle1]

I could see the 8/X getting dropped or staying. It's hard to tell nowadays.

 

[darngooddesign]

Forced upgrades.

No one is forcing you to upgrade. You still going to get a couple of years of security updates and app updates.

 

[Populus]

Makes sense. I'm a working pro, I animate and do motion design among other things with files up to hundreds of layers in PS / project files as big as 2-3 gb with no photos in them, AE files with 50-100 of layers per comp, with multiple comps per project, with tons of very resource consuming 3rd party plugins and I'm doing it on a late 2014 Retina 5K iMac + now quite old Wacom Cintiq 27 QHD + eventhough I have access to full Adobe CS, I prefer to work on 2010 editions because since then it's just been a bunch of belts and whistles and a huuge drop in performance (Adobe is like "we won't optimise, it's too expensive - we are making only 1 billion a year on subscription plans, you should just buy a new computer every 12 months!") ... Maybe a year ago I figured it's time to move to Apple silicon but waiting for M3.
I definitely feel you, we live in a fake world of consumptionism bloated to grotesque proportions...
I also find it very funny how all these tech youtubers keep this wheel spinning and post their charts and comparisons of bleeding edge stuff, while doing some automated, bs generic tasks and don't even have an idea how to really use the computing power they are reviewing - because they are too amateur and a Mac Mini / a set of Mac Minis would suffice their needs for next 3+ years

Yeah, M3 with the transition to 3nm will be a good point to upgrade. Unfortunately, I had to upgrade during the M2 gen because the M3 iPad Pro will come with an OLED display and I can’t tolerate those screens… but if the iPad Pro had stayed with LCD screens, I would have waited to the M3 (just like I’m doing with the Mac), not just for performance but for longevity and battery life.

 

[Asbow]

Good. Apple shouldn’t handicap iOS in order to support older phones

Pretty much like Apple shouldn’t handicap macOS 14 by supporting M1s.

 

[Mr Rib]

Yeah, M3 with the transition to 3nm will be a good point to upgrade. Unfortunately, I had to upgrade during the M2 gen because the M3 iPad Pro will come with an OLED display and I can’t tolerate those screens… but if the iPad Pro had stayed with LCD screens, I would have waited to the M3, not just for performance but for longevity and battery life.

I don't believe these rumors. I think it's a PR thing - they "leak" they change to OLED as they did like 3 years ago
OLED makes no sense on neither Macbook Pro (burn in, longevity) nor on iPad (it would render it unusable in daylight...)
They rumor it as crowd contro - for the hypebois who just jump on every new tech there - while they wait for microLED to be an option.

As for the upgrade point - yup, I'm getting an M3 and will use it for next 8+ years - unless Adobe somehow comes up with a plan to force people out of the older versions of their suite.. at this point everything is possible. Heck, we may need to subscribe soon to be allowed to breathe.

 

[supergt]

I’m using 29.4 GB of 32 on my iPad 7th Generation.
That includes removing the larger Apps from Apple.
The last two updates needed to remove some Apps to download the update.
They were put back.
iPad OS 16.4 had my first casualty, an app that no longer works.
As an Android user as well, having no more than two OS updates is normal.
My iPad was refurbished and came with iPad OS 14.8.
I updated to 15 on day one.
I feel my iPad is lucky to be able to receive 17.
I wonder if 18 will be too big for the 32 GB storage.
Also CPU limitations (or whatever).

Fair enough. I got the 128 gb version so I don't typically think of space as a constraint.

 

[darngooddesign]

iPad Pro with A10X will support iPadOS 17. It was launched earlier than iPhone X.

If by compromises, you mean Apple revenue, then you're right.

The iPad has 1GB more RAM and double the number of cores. Probably something about the X in A10X which means it gets 17.

 

[collin_]

My guess is that this has to do (at least partially) with the Neural Engine getting vastly more powerful/capable in the A12 vs A11. Many of Apple's latest software features rely heavily on the Neural Engine.

 

[TigerNike23]

I thought them dropping the A10 and the 7 was a mistake last year. I think them dropping the A11 and the 8/X would be a mistake this year.

And to those saying “it won’t stop working”, you’re right… until the apps start requiring iOS 17.

I had a Series 1 Apple Watch after they discontinued support, and many apps disappeared because they required watchOS 7. It sucked. No ESPN, no MyChart, no MLB apps.

 

[TigerNike23]

Also, what happens to the first gen Apple TV 4K?

It has an A10X in it…

 

[JosephAW]

My iPhone 8 Plus is still amazingly fast with iOS 16

 

[darngooddesign]

Also, what happens to the first gen Apple TV 4K?

It has an A10X in it…

I am 100% sure that the AppleTV wont get iPadOS17.

 

[TigerNike23]

I am 100% sure that the AppleTV wont get iPadOS17.

Clearly. But if this is about processors, why not drop the HD and first gen 4K?

I hope they don’t, I have two 2017 models.

 

[Insidious]

My iPhone 8 Plus is still amazingly fast with iOS 16

Mine was too! I only upgraded to the iPhone SE 3 because my 8 Plus had been dropped too many times.

 

[7149041]

Most people I know won't notice the lack of updates until years later when apps stop working. A lot of people never update ANYTHING.

 

[darngooddesign]

Clearly. But if this is about processors, why not drop the HD and first gen 4K?

I hope they don’t, I have two 2017 models.

I don’t think it’s just about processors. TV-OS probably has lighter hardware requirements which means that older hardware is supported longer.

 

[ZircoBen]

Does anyone know if iPhone X includes the Xs phone? Or just the original X.

My Xs is still working fine and I can probably get another year or so out of it if its not obsoleted by Apple.

I adore the XS, it’s really stood the test of time and I think it’s a sizeable upgrade over the X! You’ll be set for another year.

I upgraded to a 12 mini and honestly miss the XS. Might find another one.

 

[JPack]

The iPad has 1GB more RAM and double the number of cores. Probably something about the X in A10X which means it gets 17.

iPad (2018) gets iPadOS 17. It has 2GB RAM and A10.

It's not the hardware. The deciding factor of whether a device gets an upgrade comes down to:

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Not necessarily. Note that the iPad Pro 10.5" has 4 GB of RAM and the iPhone X only has 3 GB of RAM.

You didn't mention the 2018 iPad with A10 and 2GB of ram. iPhone X has a better chip and more ram. Why does it get iOS17 but the X doesn't

 

[I7guy]

I adore the XS, it’s really stood the test of time and I think it’s a sizeable upgrade over the X! You’ll be set for another year.

I upgraded to a 12 mini and honestly miss the XS. Might find another one.

I replaced the battery in my Xs max and performance is as good on iOS 16 as day 1. However I know it’s getting long in the tooth. I had planned on replacing the max with the i14PM but other apple product purchases took priority.

The iPhone 15 is going to be the “best iPhone ever”.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

I see this as a good thing. The narrower the range of performance thresholds the OS needs to hit, the more optimized it can be for what it does run on.

So I take it you’re an annual upgrader and would prefer Apple dropping last years iPhones with every new iOS? Because that would create a flawless iOS?

Where are you getting this naïveté from?

iOS being more and more a mess comes down to Apple not scaling iOS team as more devices have been added to the lineup.

It’s just a profit margins issue.

Apple earning even more won’t (de facto) expand the iPhone/iOS dev team.

The issue with iOS is consumers perpetually buying iPhones despite increasingly buggy OS.

 

[bodonnell202]

Much older devices being dropped is simply because the software caught up with hardware at the time. Since at least iPhone 7, features introduced in iOS are not mind numbing powerful to warrant significant hardware power. The iPhone X is still a powerful device, the fact that it still does everything in terms of general smart phone usage as the latest iPhone 14 would suggest it could do with a few more years of iOS releases. Its just like Windows 11 vs Windows 7. The same things I do on Windows 11 today: access email in Outlook, launch Chrome and browse web sites, listen to streaming music in Spotify, type word documents in Word. I did all that on Windows 7 and Vista.

The same routines we did on an iPhone 5: listen music, take selfies, watch videos on YouTube, browse social media apps, send messages using WhatsApp are the very same things we are doing today in iOS 16. Sure, there are niche things that Apple can leave out for older devices and make be exclusive to recent and newer model iPhones. But there is only so much you can do with a rectangle. Sure, 5G, satellite calling, 10x zoom, promotion, but those can all be optional. Just as they make features specific to the Pro models versus the standard iPhones.

Exactly, what do you think people that have an iPhone 8, 8 Plus or X will be missing out on with not getting iOS 17? It will still be able to do all the things it was able to do with iOS 16, it just won't receive any new features (which let's face it will probably be dumb anyway, the last feature I got excited about was dark mode). On top of that Apple will continue to provide security updates. People whine about planned obsolescence, but these iPhones will still be able to do all the same things next year as they were able to do this year. I'm really struggling to understand what people are so upset about here.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

I always found that ridiculous, as the iPhone X itself can run games with FAR superior animations and graphics. The weather app isn't even going to be running for all that long either.

iPad (2018) gets iPadOS 17. It has 2GB RAM and A10.

It's not the hardware. The deciding factor of whether a device gets an upgrade comes down to:

Stage Manager on iPads really proved how arbitrary the whole “dropping” of older devices is.

Planned obsolescence is a great tool to ensure continued economic growth though.