New Features in iOS 6 Receive Spotty Support from Older Devices

[yakapo]

They wrote off the iPad 1 totally and slowed it down to the point of it being unusable when it wasn't even 9 months off production.... My upgrade to Lion onto a 19 month old MacBook Pro was a disaster and still hasn't been rectified

Ya, we had an original ipad and after updating it, safari kept crashing. There was a huge thread somewhere with tons of people with the exact same issue. I just wrote it off to planned obsolescence, sold it and bought an ipad 2 right after the ipad 3 was released.

Apple is turning into the old Nintendo (buy it b/c our name is on it). At the moment, google and MS don't quite match up. However they are advancing quickly.

 

[kinderdm]

Makes me glad that I decided to just jailbreak my iphone 4. And makes me even more glad that my next phone is going to be an android. I can understand why this has happened and I know google isn't perfect either but I'm just tired of being lied to by Apple. Facetime on 3g is right around the corner for you (2 years ago). Apps for Apple TV are coming any day now (2 years ago). At least I didn't buy that turd as well. I honestly think they just train their store reps to say yes to whatever they think we want to hear.

 

[chgojcs]

Makes me glad that I decided to just jailbreak my iphone 4. And makes me even more glad that my next phone is going to be an android. I can understand why this has happened and I know google isn't perfect either but I'm just tired of being lied to by Apple. Facetime on 3g is right around the corner for you (2 years ago). Apps for Apple TV are coming any day now (2 years ago). At least I didn't buy that turd as well. I honestly think they just train their store reps to say yes to whatever they think we want to hear.

Really? Heck, while Apple is at it, supporting every last bit of legacy tech, why not just make iOS compatible with a RAZR?

 

[MythicFrost]

Yes, because when people refer to Android fragmentation, they mean API level fragmentation, not feature fragmentation.

Because I could only be talking about one type of fragmentation right? :roll eyes:

The whole fragmentation topic is about how difficult it is for the developer to create an app for a platform. On the software side of things you've got feature fragmentation which plays a part, and API fragmentation which plays a part as well, and then you've got the hardware fragmentation.

The head in the sand I was talking about.

I've not got my "head in the sand", you seem unable to hold a discussion with someone who doesn't agree with you without resorting to some kind of insult though.

With iOS, you have more than 1 OS to target and it's not as easy as you make it sound. The first time I ran my app on the retina version of the hardware, some stuff broke... badly...

It absolutely is that easy. You've got more than 80% of iOS users running iOS 5, and that's only increasing -- target iOS 4 as well if you want to cover every base, but still that's only two versions.

Just out of curiosity, what stuff? I can't think of anything off the top of my head which would break transitioning to the retina display.

 

[ncaissie]

(read give it away for free now).

How is locking you into a higher priced 3 year contract free? Not in my eyes.

 

[tbrinkma]

In all seriousness, the Android frameworks are built in a way that you don't actually have to do that.

Yep. That's exactly how Android development works...
...in *theory*.

In practice, it's a whole different ball game. Just ask the dozens of current (and former) Android developers who have spoken out about the mess involved in actually trying to support all of the most popular Android phones on the market.

You target an API level and a common set of hardware features. Same as you would with iOS devices... except there is no such thing as an API level, you have to basically test out things to make sure the APIs are there or not or block out devices from being able to buy your apps... oh wait, like Android.

It's the friggin same thing. There's no reason to go on and on about Android fragmentation when iOS does the same thing.

In theory, it's the same process, except that on the Android side the differences you've got to test for, and how to properly test for them, isn't well documented, and the documented 'proper' tests often don't work. And you still can't develop apps for ICS if you want to support all the phones currently being sold (or even those which were introduced since ICS was released). There are still more Android phones in use which are on Froyo than on ICS, and some of those phones have been on the market for less than a year and a half.

That's the mess people are talking about when they discuss the fragmentation of the Android market. To claim it's "the friggin same thing" ranges from ignorance to the blatant spread of misinformation.

It's like claiming that a shopping cart ding is "the friggin same thing" as a 12-car interstate pile-up.

 

[Codestud]

I remember the hefty premium I paid to own an iPhone 4 in the first place, and although I can live without Siri, the omission of turn-by-turn navigation and FaceTime over 3G built in to the OS is utterly lame, quite frankly, when other apps do those sorts of things without a problem.

The iPhone 4 is not as speedy as the 4S but it's certainly no slouch and could have handled these features.

My Apple loving friend is already considering an Android phone for his next phone and I might even hazard a look myself.

 

[tigress666]

And I would disagree the differences aren't huge - nearly everything inside is upgraded by between the 4 and 4S. Why is it with phones people ignore the upgrades, yet you wouldn't' say theres no difference between the new Macbook Airs just released and the ones from last year...

But it looks the same, it has to be the same, right?

Have people not noticed that the iphones that look the same are the ones that get the very good internal upgrades and therefore also stay relevant longer?

I totally expect the 4 isn't going to run iOS 6 well (I mean even when it was new the 3GS at least played games better cause the 4 didn't get a big processor bump and had more resolution to deal with so anything graphics intensive needed a lot more power to run). Where as the 3GS it's managed to run in its third year the iOS well enough it wasn't a big stink (unlike the 3G on iOS4) about how the new iOS made 3GS unusable. Yeah, I don't expect either the 3GS or 4 to be running the new OS well but the 3GS is now going to be going into its 4th year and still being able to run the most current OS which is pretty damned good (I really don't want to hear 3GS owners complain) and the 4 doesn't have that much an increase on internals even if it is a year newer.

But, no.... internals don't count, just the outside appearance, right?

 

[henryhbk]

Is it just me or does anyone find it odd that the iPhone 4 is getting lack of support? The difference from the 4 and 4S aren't that huge. With the exception of Siri (and I still think Siri should of been added on the iPhone 4) this is ridiculous.

I can understand the 3GS completely but not the iPhone 4.

The 4 doesn't have the correct microphone for Siri to work. The turn by turn directions use Siri to give the directions, so that feature won't be available.

I have no idea why they won't do facetime over 3G, since they aren't saying it only works over LTE or HSPA+ (which only work on the 4S)

 

[Mr. Gates]

I just bought an ipad 2 a few months ago. I'm really disappointed they didn't add siri to the ipad 2. It has the same processor as the ipad 3. I realize this is a type of planned obsolescence to maximize quarterly revenue - but why is apple so desperate to squeeze out some extra bucks? Don't they have like 100 billion in the bank? These features that are exclusive to the newest line are just an attempt to create artificial value and perceived advances in tech that hasn't really changed that much. I don't care for the high res screen in the ipad 3 and I don't play games, so the ipad 2 was exactly what I needed.

I switched to android phones and I'm probably not going back to iphones. Hopefully the windows tablets will be good enough to compete with the ipad in a few years. In the meantime, I'm going to jailbreak. My wife uses the ipad while cooking and siri will be a useful feature.

Just Jailbreak that sucker and be happy. You can put SIRI or anything you want on it with a Jailbreak.

My advise, don't wait for Apple to do things for you - do them for yourself

 

[Wicked1]

I will be interested to see what they phase out during the release of the new iPhone, iP4 sales are strong, iP4S is better, but they are still selling tons of contracts with the 3GS....

 

[lifeinhd]

Loyal customers my ass. How large of a majority of iPad 2 owners even own another iOS product? Likely very few.

Siri was never promised to work on the iPad.

And because of its required connectivity, I'd be surprised if Siri was ever available on hardware that didn't have a cellular connection.

Then why is it available on the iPad 3 wifi model?

 

[cube]

What about Do Not Disturb and fixing the power consumption for iPad 1 ?

Or are we supposed to port Android to it?

 

[kevinof]

Total BS. I had voice input on my old HTC Desire (running Vlingo). Only had a single mic. You're telling me that Apple doesn't have the smarts to get Siri working on the iphone 4 because it has a single mic?

yeah right.

The 4 doesn't have the correct microphone for Siri to work. The turn by turn directions use Siri to give the directions, so that feature won't be available.

I have no idea why they won't do facetime over 3G, since they aren't saying it only works over LTE or HSPA+ (which only work on the 4S)

 

[lifeinhd]

Ya, we had an original ipad and after updating it, safari kept crashing. There was a huge thread somewhere with tons of people with the exact same issue. I just wrote it off to planned obsolescence, sold it and bought an ipad 2 right after the ipad 3 was released. .

Wait, so they screwed up your $500 device, and... you rewarded them by buying another one of their products?

Ok.

*smh*

 

[tbrinkma]

We're currently at 900,000 new Android activations PER DAY. It's an extraordinarily stupid thing for a developer to ignore such a gigantic market. It's about as stupid as to say "let's ignore Windows, there are too many different PCs out there; let's just focus on the 70 million Mac users world wide instead of the ONE BILLION Windows machines."

You'd think so, yet many developers are doing just that because of the added pains and costs required to develop apps for the Android platform. Many developers have discovered that, compared to the iOS market, the Android market costs more to develop for and brings in less revenue.

If it really were "an extraordinarily stupid thing for a developer to ignore such a gigantic market", why are so many people who are *capable* of doing such development opting not to when faced with the realities of the situation? Could it be that it's not such "an extraordinarily stupid thing" in reality?

For example:
iOS, with roughly 40% the market share of Android typically brings in 60% of revenue for developers who support both platforms, while accounting for only 30-40% of development costs, and 20% of support costs.

Platform: Market Share / Revenue / Dev Costs / Support Costs
IOS: 40% / 60% / 40% / 20%
Android: 60% / 40% / 60% / 80%

Let's assume for a moment, that we have a developer, who created an app which breaks even and supports both iOS and Android. Let's say that it broke even with $10,000 in revenue.
That means the developer spent $10K in development and support costs in the time it took to sell $10K worth of the app. For Android's best-case scenario here, we'll pretend that support costs don't enter into the equation.

That means the iOS version cost them $4K to develop vs. the $6K for the Android version. On the other hand, the iOS version brought in $6K vs. $4K for the Android version. That means that the iOS version brought in $2K *profit* while the Android version brought in a $2K *loss*.

Over time the picture doesn't look much better for the Android version, because the differences in support costs start to rear its ugly head. We'll say we're dealing with $1K in support costs over the next 3 months (almost certainly low). Of that $1K, $800 belongs to the Android version, while $200 belongs to the iOS version. So, now the iOS version has a profit of $1.8K while the Android version has a loss of $2.8K.

Assuming no additional costs, and flat sales during that support time, the Android version will have earned $1.2K for it's developer, at a cost of $6.8K (profit ratio of 17.6%) . Over the same time, the iOS version has earned the developer $7.8K at a cost of $4.2K (profit ratio of 185.7%).

From the various, independent, developers who have released such numbers, the ratios I'm using appear to be pretty typical (and possibly overly favorable to Android). Many developers, when faced with these sorts of ratios, realize that supporting an app for Android isn't worth it.

Admittedly, most of the reports I've seen have been related to games, which tend to depend more heavily on the specifics of the hardware. The ratios may be better for less 'intensive' apps, but the overall sales & market share ratios appear to be the same overall, so it would take *significantly* lower dev & support costs for Android development to become *more* favorable than iOS development from a purely financial stand point.

 

[neil1980]

Mixed thoughts on all of this.

Firstly I could just chose not to upgrade to iOS6 and I've got exactly the same as I have now, no worse off, so really I don't feel ripped off by Apple as many say and am actually pleased that they do support older devices with software updates.

However... Somethings are just baffling.

• Yep, it would shave been nice to have Siri on the iPhone 4 but I really wasn't expecting that so don't mind.
• Yep, no 3G support for FaceTime on the 4 IS a crazy decision.. but I jailbreak my phone anyway and for what its worth, other than the week I got iOS5 I've never used it anyway.
• Yep, missing turn by turn is a pain...that said I've already shelled out for TomTom and you can guarantee maps needs a constant 3G connection for that to work so all in all I probably have the better option anyway.

On the iPad front I'm chuffed I get Siri on my iPad 3. I half expected it when they announced the iPad so was a little disappointed but pleased I'll now have it... though I don't think for a minute it will get used regularly when novelty value wheres off.

I am VERY disappointed that iPad 1 is no longer supported. I got mine a few weeks before iPad 2 though it got passed down to my dad...now theres a chance of new apps NEEDING iOS6 to run and it won't run them? Thats crazy for a non subsidised device that about 15 months old (ok maybe 18 by the time it comes out).

What think would be a fairer model of doing this is do the release as they are... but where its technically possible (3G FaceTime on 4...basic iOS6 on iPad) and commercially they decide not to have it...charge for the upgrade? I'm sure in this household you'd get paid updates for iPad 1 and iPhone 4 to enable things that run fine but commercially it was decided not to add them.

 

[dannys1]

iPad 2 will have turn by turn navigation, but will not have Siri. Therefore, turn by turn does not require Siri.

I stand corrected, I wasn't aware of this - mainly because I'm only interested in the latest models of everything

 

[Mad-B-One]

Well, the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 don't support 4G like networks.

Eh, yea, and the new iPad does 4G only in parts of the United States... So, where again is your argument?

 

[cotak]

What on earth is preventing FaceTime over cellular on the iPhone 4?

The lack of your cash in Apple's coffers.

 

[JGowan]

Obviously, quite a number of these new features will require backend help from Apple directly. Just as Apple put Siri in a Beta class and didn't allow it on ANYTHING other than new 4S iPhones (not even new iPads), I believe they are throttling some of these new features/services until they have a good idea how much effort they'll need to put in for their servers to handle everything without too much downtime. Even while in BETA, Siri's reputation is a bit tarnished for being great sometimes and just plain not working other times. Perhaps Apple doesn't want to repeat this pattern with the newest services to be offered by iOS6. Perhaps they feel their newest customers who've supported them most recently should get the best stuff as they figure out how to serve even more of the older users. By limiting to the newer, they are serving few users. No matter how well 4S and the new iPad is selling, they are just a drop in the bucket to the total of the other iPhone 3GS/4 and iPad 1 users there are still using the older equipment.

Many thought that Siri wouldn't come to the new iPad but here it is. It just took a little time.

Just a thought...

Apple serves up 7 billion notifications a day and has over 1.5 TRILLION (yes, trillion) notifications total. With their 140 Million iMessage members, they've already served up 150 BILLION messages with an average of 1 Billion per day. These are just 2 services and those alone put quite a strain I'm sure on their operation.

I believe that many of the services that aren't immediately coming to the legacy equipment will eventually be there when Apple is certain that by including ALL services for all recent iOS devices 1, 2 and 3 years old, that they won't effectively ruin the services for everyone. It is my belief that when the pipes are big enough, more devices will get the newer services.

 

[Ram27]

No 3D or nagivation for iPhone 4?!




Not even gonna bother updating/unjailbreaking now.
I already got the new wallpaper so I have nothing to gain by spending two hours restoring, updating, jailbreaking, reinstalling everything...
Dammit.

 

[dukebound85]

No 3D or nagivation for iPhone 4?!




Not even gonna bother updating/unjailbreaking now.
I already got the new wallpaper so I have nothing to gain by spending two hours restoring, updating, jailbreaking, reinstalling everything...
Dammit.

IMO, I think the 3rd party apps like navigon are worth it on the 4

 

[WeegieMac]

IMO, I think the 3rd party apps like navigon are worth it on the 4

Agreed, I used Turn by Turn on iOS 6 with my iPad 3 today and it's very poor compared to the native TomTom app I already own.

You get what you pay for, and there is no proper substitute for a fully fledged, proper, Sat Nav app like TomTom, Navigon, etc.

 

[tbrinkma]

Heck, Fraaaa said it best, the Android app he posted a quote from supports 707 devices. That's a heck of a lot of devices. Yet all the support e-mails are not about troubles or glitches, they're about "please support my device". So the app is working fine on over 700 different hardware platforms.

Yep. It works across 707 different hardware platforms (at the time of the quote), but doesn't work reliably across 3-4 major software versions that are being used on the 2000+ different hardware platforms that form the Android 'platform'.

If it were really as simple as targeting a particular API version (as you've claimed in other posts), this wouldn't be an issue. This is the fragmentation developers complain about. This is the fragmentation which causes many developers to reevaluate whether supporting Android as a platform is a sensible use of their limited resources.

They've done the work to support the versions of Android which have been released, yet their game only works on 1/3-1/4 of the Android phones out there. (We'll be charitable and ignore the early Android phones which were pathetically anemic in the hardware department, and call it 1/2 even though they don't account for *nearly* that much of the Android market.) If it weren't for the Android fragmentation problem, their app would work on 100% (or nearly such) of Android phones.

If following an SDK results in an application that won't run properly on 50% of your 'platform' (even when restricting it to the subset with sufficient CPU/GPU/RAM for the app), then I can't seriously imagine how anyone can argue that there isn't a problem.

Edit: It's worse than I thought. There aren't just 2000+ Android devices any more. That number has swollen to approximately 4000 according to data a developer has harvested from *one* app (from a link earlier in this thread). That means a developer following KnightWRX's espoused 'simple, easy, baked-into-the-SDK' process will successfully manage to get their app working on approximately 18% of the devices they're targeting. Let's be favorable and call it 25%.