iPhone.. Apple going out of its way??

[Mugambo]

When every other company like HTC, Nokia, Blackberry etc provide less than 8 - 10 months updates, Apple has kept the iPhone 2g in the loop for 3 years providing software updates. This speaks a lot about Apple going out of its way (for financially beneficial purposes) to keep updating and supporting iPhone 2g for so long. This could be a game changing trend but the question is, is Apple going to cut down the support life cycle or do other companies have to come up with devices to live up to this?

 

[DaGreat01]

I think that the 2G has been getting the updates because it's been able to do what the new OSs had offered. Next year I do see the 3G being left out since it can barely keep up with OS4. But I do see the 3GS being updated for a while since it's hardware is pretty good. There is only so much more Apple can add to the iPhone and OS that the 3GS hardware wouldn't be able to handle.

 

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-gb; Nexus One Build/ERE27) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

I think it helped that the 2g and 3g were very similar hardware wise. I do applaud apple for supporting the 2g for so long tho.

Sad to see it lose support but it had to happen eventually.

 

[DaGreat01]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-gb; Nexus One Build/ERE27) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

I think it helped that the 2g and 3g were very similar hardware wise. I do applaud apple for supporting the 2g for so long tho.

Sad to see it lose support but it had to happen eventually.

Why is it sad? Its a 3 year old phone...

 

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-gb; Nexus One Build/ERE27) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

I think it helped that the 2g and 3g were very similar hardware wise. I do applaud apple for supporting the 2g for so long tho.

Sad to see it lose support but it had to happen eventually.

Why is it sad? Its a 3 year old phone...

They could have pushed the envelope a little further. They have done really well either way so I'm not knocking apple for how long they did support the 2g.

 

[tnisatard]

I think that the 2G has been getting the updates because it's been able to do what the new OSs had offered. Next year I do see the 3G being left out since it can barely keep up with OS4. But I do see the 3GS being updated for a while since it's hardewear is pretty good. There is only so much more Apple can add to the iPhone and OS that the 3GS hardwear wouldn't be able to handle.

 

[kasakka]

Well, they are already dropping features from the older models that would work, though possibly not as smoothly as Apple likes.

Apple is doing the smart thing though. First the lack of different models means that there is less confusion to the buyer. Secondly there is less hardware and software that they have to support.

By comparison Nokia is more like "we tried something, it's kinda crap but let's put it on the market anyway". We have several N900s at work and I can't believe how bad they are compared to the iPhone. Good specs on paper, poor execution.

 

[DaGreat01]

lol my bad. I was typing this on my phone, but either way it spelled wrong...

 

[con500]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-gb; Nexus One Build/ERE27) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

I think it helped that the 2g and 3g were very similar hardware wise. I do applaud apple for supporting the 2g for so long tho.

Sad to see it lose support but it had to happen eventually.

Why is it sad? Its a 3 year old phone...

In many cases it is still a 2 year old phone, not everyone was camping on the street on launch. Actually i first recieved my 1st gen around 19 months ago here in the uk when i was daft enough not to realise that a newer model was just round the corner (being an apple newbie, i never read the forums/blogs)
That phone served me well tho and still going strong and now belongs to my sister

one thing i would mention is contrary to what being said on the web about the 1st gen at the end of life with the intro of OS4...This cannot be justified IMO that phone cost myself around £500 at purchase date (sim free out of contract) and in the 1.5 years i owned it i mustv totalled another few hundred on
itunes/appstore
So while its fair to say that apple have gone over & above in way of updates...It could be argued that it is in apples best interest to provide updates to their devices as long as possible, in terms of Appstore revenue which if my spends there are anything to go by are mirrored by what other iphone owners spend(give or take) Then i would hazard a guess that there are still a heavy number of 2g owners still spending some of their hard earned boodle in the appstore. Surley 2g and soon to be 3g users will at least have some support in respect to what they can purchase via itunes while these devices are perfectly capable to rock what is avialable right now on itunes.

Most people have happily paid well over & above for the pleasure of owning these devices & happily contributed to pimping said device via Apples itunes
I think the update cycle has not been overly "generous" persay but id say its Fair & would expect to have a few years support on "A considered Purchase mobile...as opposed to a standard mobile phone

 

[icyfire]

well that's the difference between Apple and other cell phone makers. Most are out to make a quick buck and then quickly drop support for the phone (ahem ahem, HTC Hero where the heck is that Android 2.1 update???). Apple's in it for the long haul (well, long at least in the tech world). You want a quality experience, stick with Apple. All the posers will never be able to live up to them.