Questionable Rumor Says iOS 13 Will Drop Support for iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and iPhone SE

[MrUNIMOG]

If support for the SE is indeed dropped from iOS 13, does that mean I'll lose the option to upgrade to 12.x after 13's release? In that case I may consider upgrading to 12 sooner to future-proof my phone to support app updates. From what I read, iOS 12 is an optimized version of 11?

You can always update any device to its latest supported OS release.
Don't worry, phones dropped by iOS 13 can of course still be updated to the last iOS 12.x.x any time later.
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iOS 13 will not be compatible with the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, or iPhone SE, and support for the original iPad Air and iPad mini 2 will also be dropped, according to a questionable rumor tipped to us by French blog iPhoneSoft.fr.

This is at least the second time we've heard this rumor this year, but it remains questionable for a few reasons. For one, the iPhone SE uses the same A9 chip as the iPhone 6s and the fifth-generation iPad, so it would seem inconsistent if the iPhone SE was dropped but the latter two devices remained supported.

It could be theorized that Apple wants to drop support for iOS devices with 4-inch displays, including the iPhone 5s and iPhone SE, but there is again some inconsistency there, as the sixth-generation iPod touch will allegedly run iOS 13.

This rumor would be significant if accurate, however, as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in particular were tremendously popular devices that are likely still in the hands of many millions of customers. Meanwhile, the fan-favorite iPhone SE was only released just over three years ago, in March 2016.

iOS 13 is expected to be unveiled at Apple's annual WWDC keynote on June 3, so we'll find out for sure in less than a month.

Article Link: Questionable Rumor Says iOS 13 Will Drop Support for iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and iPhone SE

As I wrote in another thread;
Plausible scenarios, sorted by number of devices dropped:

• Same devices supported as iOS 11 and 12, the best case.
• Feature-based cutoff at A8 chip; only iPhone 5s, original iPad Air, mini 2 and mini 3 dropped. Most likely scenario.
• Performance-based cutoff at iPhone 6 performance level; additionally dropping the 6th gen iPod touch with underclocked A8 chip. 2nd-most likely scenario, although a bit doubtful since Apple went on selling the 6th gen iPod touch despite rumors suggesting a new model this spring.
• RAM-based cutoff at 2 GB; additionally dropping iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. 3rd-most likely scenario.
• Performance-based cutoff at iPhone 6s performance level; additionally dropping iPad mini 4 (and if based on single-thread performance, also the iPad Air 2). Less likely, still imaginable.
• Feature-based cutoff at A9 chip; additionally dropping the iPad Air 2. Highly unlikely, since HomePod uses the A8 and runs a close variant of the current iOS.

In addition to any of the above, due to the rumored iOS UI redesign, there might be a cutoff based on screen size, dropping the iPhone SE (likewise iPhone 5s and 6th gen iPod touch), which would explain this rumor of the SE being dropped. But that seems very unlikely.

 

[scaramoosh]

Why the SE? It's the same chipset of the 6s.

 

[MrUNIMOG]

Why the SE? It's the same chipset of the 6s.

Screen size. But highly unlikely.

 

[scaramoosh]

Screen size. But highly unlikely.

Unless they're bringing out an SE2 I'm gonna be pissed.

 

[donlab]

Not happening. Apple touts hw longevity, support for older devices as a strategy for minimizing environmental impact.

 

[JetLaw]

iOS 13 will not be compatible with the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, or iPhone SE, and support for the original iPad Air and iPad mini 2 will also be dropped, according to a questionable rumor tipped to us by French blog iPhoneSoft.fr.

This is at least the second time we've heard this rumor this year, but it remains questionable for a few reasons. For one, the iPhone SE uses the same A9 chip as the iPhone 6s and the fifth-generation iPad, so it would seem inconsistent if the iPhone SE was dropped but the latter two devices remained supported.

It could be theorized that Apple wants to drop support for iOS devices with 4-inch displays, including the iPhone 5s and iPhone SE, but there is again some inconsistency there, as the sixth-generation iPod touch will allegedly run iOS 13.

This rumor would be significant if accurate, however, as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in particular were tremendously popular devices that are likely still in the hands of many millions of customers. Meanwhile, the fan-favorite iPhone SE was only released just over three years ago, in March 2016.

iOS 13 is expected to be unveiled at Apple's annual WWDC keynote on June 3, so we'll find out for sure in less than a month.

Article Link: Questionable Rumor Says iOS 13 Will Drop Support for iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and iPhone SE

While I suppose there is not necessarily a correlation between a new os and processing overhead, I can say with certainty that my 6 Plus ran like garbage by the time I replaced it in 2017. I can’t imagine how one of those phones would fare running iOS 13 in 2019.

 

[surfsofa]

If I were Apple I’d be considering separating security updates from new features. It seems reasonable to me to continue developing attractive new features that take advantage of new hardware, but not reasonable to cut off security patches for hardware just because it can’t run those new features. So give us 5 years of security updates regardless, and if the new features and hardware are appealing enough, people will upgrade.

 

[MrUNIMOG]

If I were Apple I’d be considering separating security updates from new features. It seems reasonable to me to continue developing attractive new features that take advantage of new hardware, but not reasonable to cut off security patches for hardware just because it can’t run those new features. So give us 5 years of security updates regardless, and if the new features and hardware are appealing enough, people will upgrade.

The 5s already is at 6 years though once iOS 13 probably drops it this fall. On full feature updates.
Separating security patches from feature updates like on macOS should mean more than 5 years of patches.

The macOS model could reasonably be applied to iOS as well; macOS security patches (and Safari updates) are made available to the previous two major macOS releases besides the current one.

 

[Grey Area]

If I were Apple I’d be considering separating security updates from new features. It seems reasonable to me to continue developing attractive new features that take advantage of new hardware, but not reasonable to cut off security patches for hardware just because it can’t run those new features. So give us 5 years of security updates regardless, and if the new features and hardware are appealing enough, people will upgrade.

I'd be happy with that, but I suspect that as the company that raised the spectre of fragmentation to disparage the competition, Apple may have painted itself into a corner of all-or-nothing updates.

 

[jakja83]

10.3.3 was running fine and I didn't hear great things about 11 so I held off on the upgrade. Then nothing in 12, aside from security updates, seemed to scream at me as a must-have feature.

But I'm encouraged that your SE is doing well on 12. Did it come with 12 installed? or was it an upgrade? an upgrade through a clean install, etc?

I bought mine with iOS12 on it. I have compared with Xr side-by-side on same wifi. Differences in speed are small. Some pages load faster on the SE, some on Xr.

Remember, it has the A9-chip with 2 gigs of ram. It's not that old spec-wise.

 

[himanshumodi]

Dropping SE support will be suicidal. As others have said, internals don't seem the criteria because that would have meant dropping 6S too. So perhaps screen size, then. If there are features that will be best used only in the larger screen sizes, then Apple needs to release an OS update for SE specifically, considering it was being sold as a current device till recently. If nothing, security updates are mandatory for SE.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

This would be awesome. It would mean that I wouldn't be incessantly nagged to upgrade the iOS when I don't want to (and be super careful to not accidentally hit the wrong option every time I am nagged).

When my 6 becomes unusable, it will be time to move to Android, sorry to say, as I simply aren't willing to have a phone with no headphone port. It's countless the number of people I know with newer iPhones who tell me how annoying it is not to have one.

Tragically, I have no real alternate plan for when my 2015 retina mbp becomes unusable. The new ones are horrible. Please Steve, come back to life!

 

[scaramoosh]

Dropping SE support will be suicidal. As others have said, internals don't seem the criteria because that would have meant dropping 6S too. So perhaps screen size, then. If there are features that will be best used only in the larger screen sizes, then Apple needs to release an OS update for SE specifically, considering it was being sold as a current device till recently. If nothing, security updates are mandatory for SE.

Yeah I just bought one in November Brand new :/ I switched from the iPhone X because Face Id never worked and the phone was too big and heavy.

 

[MrUNIMOG]

Yeah I just bought one in November Brand new :/ I switched from the iPhone X because Face Id never worked and the phone was too big and heavy.

Face ID never worked? Clearly you must've been doing something wrong.
Although it's hard to do anything wrong with Face ID.

 

[Schneepard]

Bleh
my iP6+ is still quite mint condition.
I'd upgrade if there would be another iPhone with headphone jack but those times are gone.

If they drop the support for iP6s+ too then I don't know what to use. I don't like wireless headphone stuff or dongles :/

 

[MrUNIMOG]

Bleh
my iP6+ is still quite mint condition.
I'd upgrade if there would be another iPhone with headphone jack but those times are gone.

If they drop the support for iP6s+ too then I don't know what to use. I don't like wireless headphone stuff or dongles :/

I'd say you can rest assured the 6s will be supported by iOS 13 and possibly iOS 14. And after support is dropped, you have another year at least before a significant amount of Apps starts requiring a later version.

After that, well, what can you do? Get Lightning Headphones maybe, if you absolutely can't cope with an adapter or wireless.

 

[Steve121178]

Not happening. Apple touts hw longevity, support for older devices as a strategy for minimizing environmental impact.

It probably will happen. Apple needs to push people to upgrade so I expect to see anything older/smaller than the 6s to be binned to encourage adoption of 2019 iPhone's

 

[MrUNIMOG]

It probably will happen. Apple needs to push people to upgrade so I expect to see anything older/smaller than the 6s to be binned to encourage adoption of 2019 iPhone's

That's certainly not something taken into consideration at Apple when evaluating which devices to support with a software release.

 

[cola79]

That would kill Apples sales. The drop on flagship sales is one thing, but what about all those customers who don’t buy the flagships, but iPhones from the last season or before.

If those have to fear that their model will only get between 1-2 years of updates (the 128gig SE was published a year ago), the prices are insanely too high.

All these customers will switch to Android, where at least the Android One and Xiaomi Phones offer 3-5 years updates (security at least, but only cost half to a third of Apples devices).

If Apple really drops the SE it would not even help to present a SE2. My SE runs just fine like on first day, but i will never buy one again if they really drop it that fast.

 

[Steve121178]

That's certainly not something taken into consideration at Apple when evaluating which devices to support with a software release.

Apple works for their shareholders, not customers. The 2019 iPhone needs to make an impact so I'd expect the older phones to be chopped off the supported list for iOS 13.

 

[MrUNIMOG]

Apple works for their shareholders, not customers. The 2019 iPhone needs to make an impact so I'd expect the older phones to be chopped off the supported list for iOS 13.

Au contraire. How exactly do shareholders profit from Apple currently supporting more devices than ever with their latest iOS, at up to 6 years much longer than anyone else in the industry?

 

[sunapple]

Unless they're bringing out an SE2 I'm gonna be pissed.

Apple would care more about getting iPhone sales up than serving a super small portion of the market, however annoying that must be if you're still holding on to 4" phones. But I don't think they'll drop support this year.

 

[AutomaticApple]

RAM-based cutoff at 2 GB; additionally dropping iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. 3rd-most likely scenario.

This is what I believe will happen.
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Screen size. But highly unlikely.

Apple dropping support for the iPhone SE due to screen size just doesn’t make any sense to me.
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When my 6 becomes unusable, it will be time to move to Android, sorry to say, as I simply aren't willing to have a phone with no headphone port.

Get an iPhone 6S then.

 

[sunapple]

Apple dropping support for the iPhone SE due to screen size just doesn’t make any sense to me.

It just occurred to me that there were rumors of a redesigned interface for iOS 12 last year which was skipped due to a focus on speed. Maybe they have some new plans for iOS 13 that they didn't care to extend to the 4" screen? Guess we'll have to wait until WWDC.

 

[AutomaticApple]

It just occurred to me that there were rumors of a redesigned interface for iOS 12 last year which was skipped due to a focus on speed. Maybe they have some new plans for iOS 13 that they didn't care to extend to the 4" screen? Guess we'll have to wait until WWDC.

If Apple does redesign the interface, I’d except that they’ll find a way to optimize it for the iPhone SE. Sort of like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.