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

[Zdigital2015]

A very similar story surfaced a few months ago, but I cannot remember where I remember reading it...I think it was here on Mac Rumors. People were up in arms over that story.

Right now, it is unclear what Apple's threshold or criteria is for inclusion or exclusion from iOS 13 and whether or not that will change during the next couple of weeks. I think that the two largest metrics are going to be the amount of DRAM on the device and the GPU horsepower more than the CPU. Despite all the arguments to the contrary, Apple does value GPU performance.

I can see the following models excluded due to the GPU just not being up to the task (intro date added):

- iPhone 5s (September 2013)
- iPad Air (October 2013)
- iPad mini 2 (Retina) (October 2012)
- iPad mini 3 (Retina) (October 2014)

If it is due to DRAM, then I can see adding the following:

- iPhone 6/6 Plus (September 2014)
- iPod touch (July 2015) **Still being sold**

I certainly see anything with an A7 CPU being left behind. What is unclear is why the A8 would be unsupported as it has decent if unremarkable CPU scores and decent GPU scores in Geekbench.

Apple is not going to cease support for the SE as it has an A9/2GB DRAM and a Metal score equal to the iPad 5th Generation (2017), which is certainly going to be supported under iOS 13. Dropping anything with an A8 includes the iPad mini 4, which was just recently discontinued, yet the A8X in the Air 2 is good enough to make the cut? It all seems a bit like no one really knows, but saying that Apple is discontinuing support for the 6s/6s Plus (battery program) and the SE (cheapest iPhone) is more clickbait than actual journalism and is designed to rile people up against "greedy" Apple. Why would they run a $29 battery program (not a money maker) only to stop support for the 6s/6s Plus 6 months later.

It could be that Apple is still culling the list of iOS devices that it can support and, initially, A9 devices were on that list until someone in management said, "What the hell, you can't do that!". Especially after the time spent speeding up iOS 12 to run decently on A7 devices.

I think that iOS 13 is going to be a bigger release than many may think for various reasons, but indiscriminately dropping support for certain devices seems more conjecture and eyeball grabbing than reality.

Bottom line, until Apple announces iOS 13 and what is and is not supported, these rumors are not really worth a tinker's damn.
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Very possible to happen. They need a way to make users upgrade to their newer $2000 64GB iPhone's.

First of all, there is no iPhone with 64GB that costs $2000. Secondly, there is no iPhone that costs $2000, regardless of its storage size. Third, there are a lot better ways to entice people to upgrade their iPhones than cutting support to the next version of iOS.

 

[velocityg4]

I was surprised the iPhone 5s received the iOS 12 update. Typically they drop one generation of support every year. With the iPhone 5/5c being dropped with iOS 11. I would have expected it for the iPhone 5s with 12. It would be reasonable that both the iPhone 5 and 6 get dropped with iOS 13. Killing both from iOS 13 would just catch them up with the yearly clearing of old devices. Performance wise there was very little improvement from the 5s to the 6. Which is why I suspect it was saved from the chopping block with iOS 12.

Both devices are starting to show their age, noticeably, in iOS 12. It would follow if iOS 13 would perform poorly on one. It would do so on the other.

Dropping iPhone SE support doesn't make as much sense. As has been stated many times. It is essentially a miniature 6s and newer. Either Apple doesn't want to support small screens anymore or they want to set precedent that budget models get the axe more rapidly than flagship models. A precedent which would be bad news for iPhone 8/Xr owners. As those were introduced as "budget" models. If iPhone SE support being dropped is true. Hopefully it is the former reason and not the latter.

 

[realtuner]

I heard you shouldn't buy an Android because you only get 1-2 years of support and Apple guarantees at least five years?

Except Apple has never guaranteed software support lasting 5 years. Your statement claiming so is false.

Android, OTOH, has had numerous failed attempts to introduce guarantees on support. Starting way back at Google I/O 2011 with the Android Update Alliance that all Android devices should get updates for a whopping 18 months after launch. Yup. That’s how bad it was that 18 months of promised updates was considered good.

Apple is smart. Don’t make any promises and exceed people’s expectations regarding support vs Google making promises they can can’t keep.

 

[timber]

Apple in the past has dropped iOS support to some devices (iPhone or iPad) quite early in their life be it because they were released with underpowered hardware or just because it suited them in their master plan.

That hasn't happened for some time but doesn't mean much. I can easily see all those devices losing support. I bet they would even love to cut short all home button devices but they just can't do that.

 

[realtuner]

They're the same phone.

But more important than that is that the SE is still occasionally available. It would be unusual for Apple to sell anything, or even recently stop selling something, that gets no more updates.
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You're so smart.

They’re not the same. The SE has the A9 processor and 2GB of RAM that the 6S and 6S Plus have. The 6/6 Plus have the A8 and 1GB of RAM.

 

[Populus]

I could see them dropping the 5s but I really doubt they would drop the 6 or 6s. I have 2 daughters who are going to be upset if they drop support for the SE. They love the size of their SEs and have held onto them rather than upgrading to newer, larger phones.

I really doubt they still support 1GB of RAM devices -like the iPhone 5S or the iPhone 6- on such a big system overhaul like iOS 13. They will need more memory.

As for the 6S and SE, I think they can be around for one more iOS iteration, as they have enough memory and the A9 is pretty powerful. But seeing how big the jump will be with iOS 13, (and how Apple need to boost smartphone sales) I wouldn't be surprised if they drop support for devices with a SoC older than A10.

Anyways I personally think the cut is going to be on the A9 chip, and this will be the minimum.

Another factor to keep in mind it's the screen size. iOS 13 will supposedly bring a new dashboard and the 4" the SE has maybe aren't big enough for it. Even more: maybe old designs like the SE, and 6S/7/8 do receive iOS 13 but only as a feature pack and security patch, but not the complete redesign.

 

[code-m]

Most probable

Drop all 1GB RAM devices

Second Most Probable

Drop all pre A9 with A8X perhaps being an exception possibly.

Third Most Probable

Drop all pre A8

Fourth Most Probable (Almost Impossible)

All Pre A10, and maybe iPad Pro turns out to be an exception.

You do realize the 2017 iPad Pro has 4GB RAM and an A10X chip, which falls in-between an A10 and A11, plus the Apple TV 4K has an A10 chip.

The chip has nothing to do with iOS capability, it’s the RAM that makes the experience painfully slow and the degraded battery over the years. I didn’t realize that what most things people do on a phone or tablet requires an A12 chip. Even the present games runs quite well on an A8/9 chip. I have this feeling that VR/AR games are like the 3D TV feature that will not be wide spread.

 

[KawaiiAurora]

It's funny how the website linked in the article claims that the iPad Mini 3 (an Apple A7 device) will be supported by iOS 13 but the iPhone SE (which is leaps and bounds more capable) won't!

 

[curtvaughan]

Apple has in the past issued security and certificate updates for a previously discontinued version of iOS.

A while back there was a certificate that expired which was used for FaceTime; Apple issued an update for the previous iOS version so that FaceTime wouldn't break on those devices.

That will be the decision maker for me with my 6S+. When security updates are no longer issued for iOS 12 I'll need to look for a replacement. I can understand Apple dropping support for the iPhone 5 and earlier since they were all 32-bit, which would require lots of resources to continue support. That has also become the case for Macs and PCs, where support has mostly stopped for system and application development for 32-bit hardware.

I would as well. I won't buy a larger phone. If people would give me an XS for free, I'd swap it for an SE immediately - I don't care about the difference in price. I've seen people around me doing exactly this.

If the SE won't be supported anymore by Apple then my next phone will be a similarly sized non-Apple phone. No doubt about that. For larger screens I use my iPad, my MBP and my iMac. I can learn to live without continuity, without Apple Pay and without all those other iOS features I grew accustomed to. If I might return to Apple later on? I'm not sure. Buying a non-Apple smartphone might very well become my first step to get entirely out of the Apple eco-system. It's not like there's no alternative.

What is needed to get Apple to understand an appearantly huge amount of people just explicitly don't want to have a bigger phone. To be honest, I'd even like my iPhone to be a tad smaller.

What is needed is for people not to buy Apple products which don't meet their needs and/or the prices get too high. Apple will only respond when sales drop off. That's true with iPhones, Macs, and iPads.

 

[EugW]

In the iOS 13 speculation thread, I posted this table:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...quirements-speculation.2176294/#post-27255489

I theorized that A7 would be dropped, meaning iOS 13 could support 1 GB A8 iPhones like the 6 and 6 Plus.

However, I would actually prefer all 1 GB iPhones and iPads lose support. That would mean for iPads, anything including the A8 (mini 4) and A8X (Air 2) and above would be supported. For iPhones, the A9 6s, 6s Plus, and SE and above would all be supported. The SE certainly has the innards to support iOS 13 with A9 and 2 GB RAM. Thus, I would be surprised to see the SE dropped.

I know some people say the SE could be dropped because its 4" size is an odd duck size but one has to remember that even if the SE were dropped, some developers would still have to support its size. Why? Cuz, the 6s in Zoomed Display mode displays the same amount of information as the 4" iPhones. Furthermore, none of the 4" iPhones support Zoomed Display mode, so there isn't any need to support anything smaller.

IOW, my guess is that dropping the 4" SE doesn't actually help some developers as much as one might think, because proper support of the 4.7" iPhones means they also need to support the 4.7" iPhones' Zoomed Display mode, which by design is the exact same amount of screen information as a 4" iPhone in native mode.

tl;dr:

Guess: They keep support for A8 iPhone 6 and 6 Plus but drop A7 5S.
Preference: Drop A8 iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but keep A8 iPad mini 4 and A8X iPad Air 2. ie. 2 GB RAM is the cutoff.

Dropping support for the iPhone SE doesn't make much sense since it has the innards of a 6s. Furthermore, the 6s, 7, and 8 in Zoomed Display mode all are essentially functioning as magnified SEs, so developers would still have to support the SE screen size even if Apple dropped the SE.

 

[aakshey]

You do realize the 2017 iPad Pro has 4GB RAM and an A10X chip, which falls in-between an A10 and A11, plus the Apple TV 4K has an A10 chip.

The chip has nothing to do with iOS capability, it’s the RAM that makes the experience painfully slow and the degraded battery over the years. I didn’t realize that what most things people do on a phone or tablet requires an A12 chip. Even the present games runs quite well on an A8/9 chip. I have this feeling that VR/AR games are like the 3D TV feature that will not be wide spread.

I obviously meant the first gen Pro.

 

[44267547]

It's funny how the website linked in the article claims that the iPad Mini 3 (an Apple A7 device) will be supported by iOS 13 but the iPhone SE (which is leaps and bounds more capable) won't!

Good catch. And sometimes MacRumors reports bogus predictions from unreliable sites like this article is indicating. There’s no logical reason to discontinue the iPhone SE whatsoever, The A9 processor is still very much relevant.

 

[joeblow7777]

The SE basically has the same internals as the 6s/6s Plus and the 2017 iPad (5th gen), so they would all lose support as well. Frankly, I don't see that happening this year.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

It's about time, at least for iPhones 5S and 6.

Since iPhone X we have these amazing processors and iOS can't use them because they still have to support dogs such as iPhone 5S and 6 with processors that did not exactly fly back in '13 and '14 and now they're just useless bricks.

 

[alpi123]

Isn't every rumour "questionable"?

 

[AppleHaterLover]

The SE basically has the same internals as the 6s/6s Plus and the 2017 iPad (5th gen), so they would all lose support as well. Frankly, I don't see that happening this year.

I don't think A9 devices will lose support this year. They were on sale until very recently.

iPhone 6S was sold all the way through October 2018, so it should get at least another update.

iPad 5G was sold until April 2018.

iPad Pro 1G (all versions) was sold until June 2017.

 

[apolloa]

Won’t be surprised if they drop the SE support, it’ll be an utterly stupid arrogant move, but this is Cooks Apple.. so it won’t surprise me if they do.

 

[Zdigital2015]

It's funny how the website linked in the article claims that the iPad Mini 3 (an Apple A7 device) will be supported by iOS 13 but the iPhone SE (which is leaps and bounds more capable) won't!

The article is complete clickbait...there is no way Apple would drop support for the SE and keep supporting the iPod (6th Generation). Also, the iPhone 6s/6s Plus, SE AND iPad (5th Generation) are all basically the same with a 1.8GHz CPU, 2GB DRAM, similar single-core/multi-core and Metal GPU scores. The smaller screen sizes of the SE and the iPod touch do make it more difficult for developers to create applications that really need a larger screen size to show off their best, but Apple has mitigated some of that and they have to deal with it themselves.

That being said, I think cutting support for all A7 devices is a foregone conclusion. The rest is too much up in the air. 3 more weeks and we will have our answers.

 

[dannyyankou]

It makes sense if you think about it. They would’ve dropped 5s support last year, but iOS 11 was so bad that they had to cancel their original iOS 12 plans and fix older devices. iOS 13 will probably be a big leap forward and will significantly affect performance on the iPhone 6.

Dropping SE support makes no sense though.

 

[apolloa]

This argument is so absurd. Why would any company force their customer to look for a new product. Every time you do this you risk a happy customer jumping to your competition. Yes, you can build some safeguards with services and accessory products that help keep your customer attached to you, but generally speaking every time someone upgrades to a new device you risk losing their business entirely.

Nope, fraid not because these days people are usually locked into your eco system, this is particularly the case you Apple..

 

[myrtlebee]

Wrong. The A8 devices will be dropped before the A9. There is no reason for both devices to go together. That said, I think both WILL be supported in iOS 13 and just the A7 dropped. They can't drop support for 3 chip generations at once. Makes no sense.

 

[one more]

Seems that the cut off is based on ram as the SE and the 6S plus have the same chip.

SE has 2 GB of RAM as well, no?
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People do need to upgrade.

People can't keep expecting free software upgrades forever. And Apple cannot possibly keep supporting old legacy devices that lack the capabilities to deliver a buttery smooth and delightful iOS experience.

And why can’t Apple do that? In fact, they did exactly that with iOS 12.

 

[nburwell]

I'll believe it when Apple announces iOS 13 next month. I highly doubt the SE will not support iOS 13. The 6/Plus certainly makes sense. If the 6s/Plus are going to be supported by iOS 13, I would presume the SE would too.

Guess we'll soon find out.

 

[redneckitengineer]

I hope I don't find my iPhone SE obsolete next month. I really enjoy having a small phone as my backup.

 

[sracer]

Since Apple refuses to allow customers to downgrade to a previous version of iOS and they nag customers to death to upgrade when an upgrade is available (yes, the tvOS beta profile helps avoid that but that is not an official workaround), having such a cut-off for upgrading to iOS 13 is a good thing IMO.

I'd much rather have a more stable experience on 12 than an experience with diminished performance on 13.