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Other Is iOS 27 shaping to be controversial, and do you think all iPhones that support iOS 27 will also support iOS 28? iOS 27 is expected to drop the A13
- Thread starter SMG4fan7236
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bodonnell202
macrumors 68030
I don't think there will be controversy as it seems it is mostly going to be a bug fix iOS update (like iOS 12) with not a lot of new features. I still think they will drop anything with an A13 for iOS and anything with an A12 for iPadOS (although not sure what direction they will go with A12X vs A12Z iPad Pros).
bodonnell202
macrumors 68030
Whoops, I misread that. I don’t see software updates for iPhones extending beyond 7 years (yet) so I suspect iOS 28 will drop the iPhone 12 series.
Well if performance improves for them with iOS 27 then iOS 26 would ACTUALLY be worse than iOS 28 so it should run well with 28 too. You get my logic?
bodonnell202
macrumors 68030
Yes, but if iOS 27 improves performance why not support the iPhone 11 series?Considering Apple is already providing basic security updates for a couple years I just don’t see them pushing past 7 years even if the device would handle the update fine.
ry-guy
macrumors regular
It’s going to drop support because of AI integration. Right now people are going all in on letting AI go through their messages, emails, etc on their macs and work stuff, etc. Things like creating connected notes, reminders, and email can be pretty powerful. AI is already much more of an assistant than Siri ever dreamed.
Example( I had AI create me a 30 day plan for learning some programming stuff and Apple doesn’t allow access to Reminders or easy batch processing. Claude created a AppleScript on my Mac to create the plan in reminders with notes etc in 10sec. I would have had to manually enter said reminders on my phone for 10 minutes+. ) How amazing if i could have done this integrated in Apples OS!
“Siri, make me a 30 day plan and put it in my reminders for 9am.”
This will require more resources of course(ram, gpu, etc) and that will drop off older chips. Apple wants to have support for long term devices but the software and hardware is starting to push away from that i think.
Regardless if people like AI, the tech trend is going this way. Especially if the AR rumors are true, then the phone will need more processing as well.
All my opinion of course.
Example( I had AI create me a 30 day plan for learning some programming stuff and Apple doesn’t allow access to Reminders or easy batch processing. Claude created a AppleScript on my Mac to create the plan in reminders with notes etc in 10sec. I would have had to manually enter said reminders on my phone for 10 minutes+. ) How amazing if i could have done this integrated in Apples OS!
“Siri, make me a 30 day plan and put it in my reminders for 9am.”
This will require more resources of course(ram, gpu, etc) and that will drop off older chips. Apple wants to have support for long term devices but the software and hardware is starting to push away from that i think.
Regardless if people like AI, the tech trend is going this way. Especially if the AR rumors are true, then the phone will need more processing as well.
All my opinion of course.
ry-guy
macrumors regular
They could but it’s going to be integrated so they won’t make a “separate” OS. It will be too slow on older devices so they will drop them. Apple dropped a huge ball with Apple Intelligence so they won’t just ignore it. They “say” they are taking the long game approach to A.I. but i highly doubt that is what is going on behind the scenes.
It’s already happening in their own developer realm. They put Agentic Coding in Xcode. You can just make full apps with A.I. already.
Tech companies are dropping employees to cover the cost and development of their own A.I.s. Everywhere. It’s WHY Apple has product shortages.
We’ll see in a month for sure, but if the rumors are true on this rumors site, AI is the focus.
ry-guy
macrumors regular
That’s one possibility. Siri *technically* is.
Or a half-baked option. As of right now, Claude, ChatGPT etc can’t access all the apps on your phone, they are sandboxed. If i ask them to make me a Shortcuts file, they can’t. No access. But Apple may start opening certain apps for access, IMessage, Photos and Mail for example. Think of Siri. If you want to, you can give Siri access to your whole phone, apps, etc. (but not do much with it)
Now open that up to a third party. Claude can reorganize your entire photo library for you in a way that Siri never could. It will take processing resources of course!
Maybe they will “repackage” Googles Gemini as Siri, we don’t know yet what the outcome of their deal with Google was exactly.
But hardware wise AI models(depending on the size ) can take up GB of space and use plenty of RAM and GPU. So this will likely push out older phones. But maybe we’ll see half integration in 27 and Full in 28.
rui no onna
Contributor
It doesn't make sense to drop A13 devices purely due to AI considering A14 up to regular A17 doesn't support AI either.
winxmac
macrumors 68020
A13 devices will be dropped because of CPU speed since iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 also have 4GB RAM. 6GB RAM on non-Pro started with iPhone 14.
For iOS 28, I'm expecting iPhone 13 and newer to be supported.
I'm hoping but not expecting that iOS 27 will be an updated iOS 18 or older just like how I'm hoping but not expecting that the next Windows will be an updated release of Windows 7
For iOS 28, I'm expecting iPhone 13 and newer to be supported.
I'm hoping but not expecting that iOS 27 will be an updated iOS 18 or older just like how I'm hoping but not expecting that the next Windows will be an updated release of Windows 7
TheBeverage
macrumors regular
Apple drops devices after seven years of updates simply because it's been seven years. Any discussions about CPU or RAM limitations aren't really relevant these days. See: the same chips getting the more demanding iPadOS for longer.
rui no onna
Contributor
Yep, this. The A12-based 2019 iPad Air 3rd gen, 2019 iPad mini 5th gen and 2020 iPad 8th gen all got iPadOS 26 while Apple has already dropped support for the iPhone Xr/Xs.
Mind, I kinda wish those iPads were left on 18.
P.S. It's not quite 7 years across the line. I believe the base iPads only get 5-6 years worth of updates.
Last edited:
Devyn89
macrumors 65816
ry-guy
macrumors regular
Just checking back in here, but on reading Gizmodos article on Google I/O today, I saw this little tidbit --"According to a footnote on Android’s official website (via 9to5Google), Gemini Intelligence requires a device with 12GB of RAM and a “qualified SOC flagship chip,”
And again, we don't know what Apples deal with Google was, but if they will do similar things, I think the requirements for the iOS will change.
Maybe they will still make a "vanilla" OS for non-intelligence(who knows) but it looks like the "future" is heading this way. (on an aside, I can't believe they named it Gemini Intelligence, like Apple Intelligence was bad enough haha).
But Google's I/O was ONLY about AI so, that's telling.
And again, we don't know what Apples deal with Google was, but if they will do similar things, I think the requirements for the iOS will change.
Maybe they will still make a "vanilla" OS for non-intelligence(who knows) but it looks like the "future" is heading this way. (on an aside, I can't believe they named it Gemini Intelligence, like Apple Intelligence was bad enough haha).
But Google's I/O was ONLY about AI so, that's telling.
AppleWes
macrumors 6502a
Using the term "controversy" is a bit exaggerated. Outside of tech fans like those of us here most general public don't care as much about iOS version number, and just want things to work.
IMO similar to the topics about iOS 26 is end of the world / horrible to use / ruins your life when in reality is it really that bad?
IMO similar to the topics about iOS 26 is end of the world / horrible to use / ruins your life when in reality is it really that bad?
HouseLannister
macrumors 68040
Nope.
It's mostly going to be AI and multitasking changes for foldables. That's a ton of work and new features. And that is going to create a lot of new bugs. The hallowed phrase Snow Leopard came from Gurman, who was wrong about a lot of the timeline stuff over the past two years, and hasn't been repeated since he missed his guess on Siri being part of 26.4. I think iOS 27 will be a big bento box of features and will probably have less of the visual glitches of iOS 26, but will have a lot of new bugs. It might not be until iOS 28 or 29 that they slow down the crunch culture of new features and short beta cycles and get around to fixing things. Being two years behind on their AI plans does not leave Apple in a good place to focus on bug fixes. But I guess we only have 10 days to see what Apple says about their tech debt, code cleanup, etc.