I think that would actually be amazingly absurd. Apple usually drops support based on hardware functionality that isn't present, e.g. dropping support for any CPU that can't run 64-bit binaries, or dropping support for Intel hardware whose video chip had no 64-bit drivers. It is actually relatively rare for Apple to drop support for hardware based solely on performance.
Moreover, it would be utterly insane for Apple to make any key functionality dependent on having so much CPU horsepower available, for two reasons:
- Even if some new home screen animation required slightly more CPU than older devices could handle easily, Apple could just disable the animation on slower CPUs or reduce the frame rate, and it would still work just fine.
- Every time you do anything that requires a fast CPU, you're burning through battery. That is the exact opposite of what you want in a home screen, which by its very nature should use as little CPU power as possible, because any extra battery burned by the home screen is power that can't be used for anything important or useful.
So no, speaking as a software engineer with a significant operating systems background, what you are suggesting is neither logical nor reasonable.
The real problem is that Apple stops issuing security updates when they stop issuing OS updates. If Apple continued to release security updates for previous OSes like the do on the Mac, I would agree, but without that, continuing to run an old OS is a major risk.
On the other hand, the more devices of a given model Apple has out in the field, the more lucrative a botnet of those devices would be, and the more of a PR crisis it would be for Apple if that happened. The last thing Apple wants is to drop a model too early and get a reputation for not lax on security.
The iPhone 6s and earlier make up about 41% of all iPhones still in active use, as of last November. If Apple does what this article suggests, they're done. Nobody in their right minds would buy a phone from a company that would casually drop support for almost half of their users, leaving those devices to turn into the largest cell phone botnet in the history of computing.
That's how I know that Apple will not do this. Dropping the iPhone 5s? Maybe. Probably not, but not unthinkable. Dropping up through the 6s? No way. There's not the slightest possibility that this is true. None whatsoever.
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