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Steve Jobs Confirms Lack of Future Support for Original iPhone

German said:
It is the same hardware

Same SoC! All have 128MB Ram!
Click to expand...

Bzzzt... Nope. Myth. Not the same hardware.

The 2 phones (1st gen and 3G) have the same application processor. But these phones are really small multi-processor systems. There are thought to be 3 to 5 processors inside each device (and more than one ARM CPU in each, according to EETimes). OS 4.x probably requires and includes significant changes for more than one of those processors (baseband CPU most likely) which are not identical between the two generation devices (different performance, different embedded memory size, different IO registers, etc.)
 
saturniphone said:
Except that the original iPhone is the same specs as the 3G minus the 3G of course. The only reason they aren't offering the same support for the original as the 3G is because they want more money. Don't fool yourself into thinking it encourages progress.
Click to expand...


Here is a link to the actual differences between the original iPhone & the iPhone 3g:

http://www.gadgetadvisor.com/gadgets/apple-iphone-2g-1st-generation-and-3g-2nd-generation-compared

The reason the Original iPhone will not be continued to be supported is that it is now lacking the fundamental feature set of all other current model smart phones, namely 3g connectivity. This isn't being done to "make you spend more money", regardless of how much you feel you want to after the reveal of the new features. It's being done to keep the hardware relevant & competitive with the other phones on the market.

Like it or not, old tech always falls to the wayside. Is it a bit early for the Original iPhone?… Maybe, but I would rather Apple spend development cycles on improving the currently competitive versions of their hardware & software, than waste time trying to improve an increasingly more out dated platform.
 
German said:
Aha?
Do you think the iPhone 3G has better hardware?
No.
iPhone 2G = iPhone 3G
-> There is NO technical reason for that lack of support!


Original & 3G: Samsung 32-bit RISC ARM 1176JZ(F)-S v1.0
620 MHz underclocked to 412 MHz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone
Click to expand...

Yes, but the fanboys will imagine something that exists only in their minds which makes it difficult to support the "old" hardware, even though the only difference between the original and the 3G is the cellular radio.

The morons who stood in line and paid $600 for one of these... plus $2,000 for service didn't even get 3 years of support for it. Now it's time to pay up! again! Pay Teh Steve! Pay!
 
firewood said:
Bzzzt... Nope. Myth. Not the same hardware.

The 2 phones (1st gen and 3G) have the same application processor.
Click to expand...

They are both using the same ARM11 and the same PowerVR MBX.

But these phones are really small multi-processor systems. There are thought to be 3 to 5 processors inside each device (and more than one ARM CPU in each according to EETimes).
Click to expand...
-> LOL
 
objc said:
Yes, but the fanboys will imagine something that exists only in their minds which makes it difficult to support the "old" hardware, even though the only difference between the original and the 3G is the cellular radio.

The morons who stood in line and paid $600 for one of these... plus $2,000 for service didn't even get 3 years of support for it. Now it's time to pay up! again! Pay Teh Steve! Pay!
Click to expand...

I stood in line and paid $600 for one of those. Are you calling me a moron?
 
There is a downside to this, though.

There's no problem with denying old iPhone users the new features because the hardware can support it. The issue is that newer software will have to be coded with the new OS 4 APIs...which means that this is the end of the road for software updates for OS 3 apps. So, the main negative here is that original iPhone users might not receive future bug fixes/updates of existing third party apps, because the updates will be for OS 4 only.

Which is fair enough. Just something to keep in mind.
 
German said:
So why? ;)
Let me hear.

It is the same hardware.
Click to expand...

Every game I've made - exact same code running on both - runs at about 150fps on the 3G and about 45fps on the 1st Gen. Can't give you a breakdown of why - just know from experience it does. (3GS gets around 500fps if you were interested)
 
firewood said:
Bzzzt... Nope. Myth. Not the same hardware.
OS 4.x probably requires and includes significant changes for more than one of those processors (baseband CPU most likely) which aren't identical between the two generation devices (different performance, different embedded memory size, different IO registers, etc.)
Click to expand...

I REST MY CASE.
 
German said:
They are both using the same ARM11 and the same PowerVR MBX.


-> LOL
Click to expand...


I think the guy you're replying to is counting stuff like little controller chips as processors. The Sega Saturn had like 15 processors if you think of it in those terms xD

I know iPhone and iPhone 3G use the same processor, but do they run at the same clock speed?
 
Progress...

Three years is a long time for any cell phone, and it's the longest I've ever owned a cell phone for.

That being said, I'm still a little disappointed. My original iPhone was bought around two weeks after the launch, and I've taken it with me all over the world and have really put it through its paces. It's been dropped on train platforms, been through rain, sleet and snow and has never once had a single problem. Oh and the battery is the original and still holds a decent charge.

/me pours one out for my gen 1 iPhone. Assuming I'm wowed with whatever the new model launched this summer is, I'll probably upgrade. I'm not 100% though, I feel weird upgrading a perfectly functional piece of hardware even if it is no longer bleeding edge.
 
Buy 1st G iPad for $699 & see price drop $200 & become worthless in 3 years

I would NEVER, NEVER buy a first gen iPad now. Early iPhone adopters got screwed within months and now after that huge investment (even if they bought it at the reduced price) the thing must be upgrade in less than 3 years? Imagine if they did that with laptops! That should have a major negative impact on Apple's so-called "green" rating.

I bought a 3GS and had it stolen. Apple and AT&T should be able to tell me within seconds who is using it so they could be promptly arrested (I filed a police report). No insurance is available and neither company cares about theft loss. $20 a month for mobile me is a major rip-off over the monthly price for phone and data services.
 
I'm not sure who to believe hardware wise, although I thought they were the same.

But another thing to consider is that fact that you can still buy a brand new 3G from Apple today, whereas it'll be about 2 years since the original stopped being sold. Customers who don't know the ins and outs of iPhones would be disappointed to find that their brand new phone doesn't support the latest OS.
 
German said:
Yes (if wikipedia is not wrong).
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/9639623/
Click to expand...

Could it be, then, faster bus speed, or faster RAM (DDR2 vs DDR3?), or some other improved bottleneck that results in the faster performance the developer above (freefall722) quoted?

The PowerVR is a very good question. Freefall722 quotes higher framerates in a 3D game, which would directly correlate to the PowerVR.

Since OS 4 also adds a lot more 3D transitions, maybe the reason it's not on the original iPhone is because of its video card?

If that is true, then dropping support for the original iPhone would also allow for OS 4.0-only games to shoot for better graphics because they don't have to test for performance on the original iPhone.
 
JFKinDC said:
I would NEVER, NEVER buy a first gen iPad now. Early iPhone adopters got screwed within months and now after that huge investment (even if they bought it at the reduced price) the thing must be upgrade in less than 3 years? Imagine if they did that with laptops! That should have a major negative impact on Apple's so-called "green" rating.
Click to expand...

Don't look at it as a purchase... look at it as a rental. You're renting it from steve... until you need a new battery... or a new one comes out and then none of the new software works with your device and you have to replace it because it's obsolete after 2-3 years.
 
Even if the first gen iPhone has the same CPU and GPU as the 3G, I wonder if part of the motivation to drop 1st gen support for 4.0 is to set a precedent to make a 3GS the minimum platform for OS 5.0, which would be a much more significant speed difference, especially if the next iPhone uses the iPad's A4 chip which would make running code built for the newest phone potentially really slow on a 3G.
 
objc said:
Yes, but the fanboys will imagine something that exists only in their minds which makes it difficult to support the "old" hardware, even though the only difference between the original and the 3G is the cellular radio.

The morons who stood in line and paid $600 for one of these... plus $2,000 for service didn't even get 3 years of support for it. Now it's time to pay up! again! Pay Teh Steve! Pay!
Click to expand...

Probably my biggest pet peeve when it comes to talk about the iPhone is when people toss in the price of the plan as "part of the cost of the phone" if you have an issue with the amount you pay to get the phone to actually be a phone maybe we should all start complaining about buying a $100 house phone that ends up being an extra 720 over two years, or a $2000 TV that ends up being an additional 1600$ over two years for cable. it's not a valid argument. if you didn't want to pay for the service you should have gotten an iPod Touch. As for not supporting the OS upgrade on the original iPhone... who cares? think of all those windows 6.5 phone users who won't be able to upgrade to 7 with a 6 month old phone? What about all those BB owners of the 83xx series? They haven't seen an upgrade to 5.x at all. The original iPhone came out in June 2007... having the most recent OS until June 2010 is excellent support if you ask me.
 
objc said:
The morons who stood in line and paid $600 for one of these... plus $2,000 for service didn't even get 3 years of support for it. Now it's time to pay up! again! Pay Teh Steve! Pay!
Click to expand...

Supporting hardware for 3 years seems reasonable to me. Keep in mind the earliest iPhone adopters got a $100 rebate, have been paying $240/less a year in text/data rates than 3G/3Gs owners, and don't have 3G dropped call issues. AT&T was still selling the Treo 680 18 months ago. Think there will be major OS updates for that anytime soon?
 
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