You do realized that Apple still sells the iPhone 4 new despite no longer giving updates in India right? Also the iPod Touch 4 was still being sold when the iPod Touch 5 was announced and didn't get the iOS 7 update. I'm fairly confident that Apple will be dropping all A5 devices next year in the US.
Apple ceased selling the iPhone 4 new in India sometime earlier in the year. And that is just one country. The iPod Touch 4 was NOT the premium iPod Touch when it had support continued. No premium iPod Touch (As the iPod Touch 5 is now) has lost support within a year of it being sold.
The only reason why Apple supported iPad 2 on iOS 8 was so they could promote their latest "we have iOS 8 installed on over X%, lets look at how that compares to Android" keynote points.
The FACT is that iPad 2 shouldn't have received iOS 8. Period.
Nope. The iPad 2 holds a significant market share for 1, and was being sold 9 months ago so it has every reason for being supported(Including they still sell it now, miniaturised as a iPad Mini 1)
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Here here
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Please send source for your figures.
What benefit have I gained by updating my iPad 2? Yeah, I can make calls through it... So what, I can just grab my iPhone (6 btw).
iPad 2 didn't get any of the new features (handoff being an example) apart from the phone calling features. So what benefit did I get? Please don't tell me that I'm getting the latest security updates because iOS has always been regarded as one of the most secure mobile platforms.
The iPad 2 received a heap of new features
- SMS forwarding
- make phone calls
- swap keyboards
- app extensions
- iCloud Drive
- quick reply
- Notifications centre widgets
- mail enhancements
- customisable share menus,
- soundbites+location sharing in messages
- quick type (I LOVE THIS)
- Safari tab view , sidebar, request desktop
- better photos app
These are just a few of the features I enjoy on my iPad (I really love the new iOS 8 features). Also you're being deluded about the security thing. Apple has patched HEAPS of flaws and bugs with iOS 8
http://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201395
Yeah and my Macbook Pro mid 2009 takes 70 seconds to boot! It would probably be faster with an SSD but Mavericks wasn't as slow at booting...
I'm sounding like an Apple-hater but that couldn't be further than the truth. I just think they need to understand the hardware limits of an older iDevice.
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BUT what are these "other functions"? Please list them...
I have personally done a clean install, to the detriment of data/apps that I wanted to keep and it is still sluggish, even on 8.1.1.
I know several others with iPad 2s and they're happy they can upgrade. Older iDevices get slower with updates so if you were so adverse to your device slowing down, DON'T UPGRADE. Its pretty simple. I don't see why Apple should stop releasing updates for older devices because some people who CHOOSE to update are annoyed its slower, thus ruining it for people who actually do want to update.
Also on the Mac OS X side, my 2009 iMac and 2008 Macbook are now booting faster with Yosemite than with Mavericks. Its a delight that I have the option to upgrade on these old devices, and I don't see how it can be spun as a negative. Maintaining support for old systems, helps OS X be grounded, so it doesn't become a resource hog. Again if its too slow, don't upgrade.
Maceumours reported the usage share, as well as Locaylitics :
http://info.localytics.com/blog/iphone-5-and-ipad-2-still-dominates. I can't find the most recent one, as int he most recent one the iPad 2 had fallen to 27 percent.
To get my iPad up to speed, I did a 'reset all settings' after I clean installed, then I turned off background app refresh, auto app updates, all location services I didn't use and a few other things.
The problem here is that iOS 8 is poorly written, even on A7 and A8 devices, which I've seen stuff crash/lag/fail. Think about it. If Apple optimises iOS 9 to run well on older devices it will be lightning fast on newer devices.