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Is there a physical reason that the original iPhone and iPod touch can't run 4.0?

What about the money that Apple is saving also by not having to go back and test on 1st gen iPhones? It saves them both time and money.
 
Bat Commander said:
If I were Steve Jobs, I wouldn't have ended support for the iPhone "2G" as long as the same software could run reasonably well on the identical iPhone 3G.
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Why not? Apple will make money by people upgrading, so it's worth it for them. Besides, the original iPhone is three years old and has received numerous feature enhancements that hardly any phone ever before has received.
 
throwbookatface said:
Reason: There are 3G's still under contract. You can also buy one right now at Apple or AT&T stores. Apple would like these to sell. AT&T would like these to sell; in fact, it'd be stupid to NOT support a phone that's still selling.

However, the 2G/Edge phone is no longer for sale. This is not a physical reason; it's an informed business decision. From a business perspective, Apple has no incentive to get you to keep an product that's out of production. Sure, they'd love you to buy apps, but it'd be even better for you to just buy a new iPhone.

Look around you for anecdotal evidence. Apple users tend to be excited about Apple's latest products. You don't see many Mac users playing around with old 12" Powerbooks or candy-colored iMacs. Hell, even PC users don't do the same. You have to know your customer base - a tech geek who deliberately uses old products is a rare thing. Even worse, they're unprofitable to please. Why devote resources to a 2G fanbase that's rapidly shrinking when the whole world is still snapping up 3G/3Gs's and we can't get our hands on the iPhone 4G? It's the same reasons artists don't tour in support of old albums and there aren't any programs for Windows 95. It costs money to keep up with technology for both consumers AND manufacturers. A hardware manufacturer isn't going to subsidize anything for you. They're here to introduce products and conduct business.

Asking Apple to support 2Gs is like asking a gym to let you come in and work out even though your membership expired. It's like asking for a free car repair even through it's out of warranty. It's like saying your pizza wasn't cooked properly and asking for a refund or new pizza, even though you ate the whole thing. Yes, it'd be great if they helped you. But you're not Apple's friend - you're a customer. A business will only support you for the normal life of a product. Customers need to pay, unfortunately.
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A well thought out and logical post....that will unfortunately fly right over the head of the intended audience.

I would also add that Apple sharehoders (who the company cares about a LOT more than those still carrying 3 year old phones) are a lot more interested in everything Apple can do to move more new phones for more profit. And not wasting money trying to limp along 3 year old cell phones to be compatible with their new products.
 
thebez said:
Like they tested OS 2.0 before they released it?
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I don't know what happened then. They didn't test (or test very thoroughly) on the original iPhone?

Maybe they assumed that they didn't have to because it was essentially the same hardware. Now that they know how extensively they have to test, it's another notch in the "don't support the original iPhone" side of the argument for Apple.
Instead of testing 4 phones (Original, 3G, 3GS, 4th Gen), they only have to test three phones.
 
vizkiz said:
What about the money that Apple is saving also by not having to go back and test on 1st gen iPhones? It saves them both time and money.
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Compared to the huge profit Apple is making, testing is peanuts. And in this case, it's not a big deal:

Adding folder support or unified inboxes or most other items is not dependent on hardware.

It's simply a matter of how much memory is available to run them. And the 2G models have the same memory as the 3G models.
 
vizkiz said:
I don't know what happened then. They didn't test (or test very thoroughly) on the original iPhone?
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No, they didn't test very thoroughly on the first gen, the then new 3g, or the ipod touch.

2.0 was "WTF!" slow, and intolerably crash happy. It was by far the worst release of the iPhone OS to date.
 
iPhone CPU

iPhone CPUs have changed with each version of the iPhone. The speed has be artificially cut back making the run at the same speed to save battery but they are not the same. So yes there is a hardware reason OS 4.0 will not run on older iPhones.
 
I feel bad for the 2G owners. What happens to their apps once 4.0 is released and all apps will require 4.0 min? They will be stuck with the same apps, no updates or new apps? One of the biggest reasons the phone sells so much is cause of the app store, and that will basically be gone.
 
kdarling said:
Compared to the huge profit Apple is making, testing is peanuts. And in this case, it's not a big deal:

Adding folder support or unified inboxes or most other items is not dependent on hardware.

It's simply a matter of how much memory is available to run them. And the 2G models have the same memory as the 3G models.
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You're missing out on the time part I mentioned. The less time they spend on one device, the more time they can spend on the other three, or one in particular if it's giving them more problems than the other two.
 
vizkiz said:
You're missing out on the time part I mentioned. The less time they spend on one device, the more time they can spend on the other three, or one in particular if it's giving them more problems than the other two.
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Doesn't matter. OS 4.0 will run like crap (and I mean crap) on both 3G and 1st Gen iPhones. Ideally, both phones should not run it. However, because Apple has sold the 3G to date, they can't cut off support just yet. They will though when OS 5 hits.
 
jav6454 said:
Doesn't matter. OS 4.0 will run like crap (and I mean crap) on both 3G and 1st Gen iPhones. Ideally, both phones should not run it. However, because Apple has sold the 3G to date, they can't cut off support just yet. They will though when OS 5 hits.
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People with the 3G are saying that, at least the Beta, runs pretty good on it. Hasn't it usually been the other way around? With Betas running worse than the release version (since 2.0)?
 
vizkiz said:
People with the 3G are saying that, at least the Beta, runs pretty good on it. Hasn't it usually been the other way around? With Betas running worse than the release version (since 2.0)?
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OS 2 (even betas) was awful, they didn't get their sh*t together until 2.1 of it (this was on a 1st Gen). Moreover, it slowed the iPhone down. OS 3, not as awful, but unbearably slow in iPhone 3G and 1st Gen. If this trend carries over, OS 4 will be kaput for 1st Gen and 3G users.
 
jav6454 said:
OS 2 (even betas) was awful, they didn't get their sh*t together until 2.1 of it (this was on a 1st Gen). Moreover, it slowed the iPhone down. OS 3, not as awful, but unbearably slow in iPhone 3G and 1st Gen. If this trend carries over, OS 4 will be kaput for 1st Gen and 3G users.
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And that's what I'm saying. People are saying the 4.0 Beta 1 runs very good on the 3G.
Just because it is a newer OS does not mean it has to run slower than the previous one.
 
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)

broncopde said:
You guys think there is any way 4.0 will be able to be hacked onto an iPhone 2G or iPod touch 1G?
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I think it will be possible for hackers to work around





some elements of 4.0 for these devices if they





are indeed "compatable" Job's claim that the





1st gen "just cant handle it" is BS, however he is probably legit in thinking these devices would struggle to cope (when stackd up with a 3Gs) To say it cant handle it alltogether is nonsence as we can see here that both 2g & its younger sibling are both the same in processing terms then it goes withoit saying that Yes if the 3g is capable of handling some of 4.0 features then so is the 1st gen device. I do think its just Apples decision to simply call time on this device just as they will with 3g mayb next year
I would imagine there will be some sort of hackible way round this 'IF' the hack community are willing to spend time on the 1st gen trouble is as of summer there will be a new iphone & include in that the Ipad would be giving Devs a total of 5 devices to concentrate on hacking. But if there is demand still out there for the older iphone...who knows?

On another note peeps on this thread saying no one are using 1st gen iphones & most users have upgraded. This may be true as i did but of all the millions of original devices sold on release & right up till mid 2008, Id hamper a guess on there being a helluva lot still in circulation. Where else would they be? To say they reside on local landfills is probably way off.
 
vizkiz said:
And that's what I'm saying. People are saying the 4.0 Beta 1 runs very good on the 3G.
Just because it is a newer OS does not mean it has to run slower than the previous one.
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Just like Snow Leopard. Newest OS, but my computer runs faster than it ever has!
 
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)

Sorry for 2nd edit gone wrong...i lost half the post Grr :)-(
 
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