Steve Jobs Confirms Lack of Future Support for Original iPhone

[DShel]

Fine for a phone but not an ipad

This is fine for a $200 subsidized phone, but it makes me a little uncomfortable about spending $500-800 on an iPad that will seem to have a similar lifespan. At least with my 3.5 year old MacBook pro I can still run the latest and greatest os with no problems. It shows no signs of lagginess or age so I expect to be able to use it for another couple years. When you have to amortize $800 over just 2-3 years of practical use, it's not a great value proposition.

 

[Bat Commander]

So what do people with 1st gen iPhones and iPod Touches think would be worse, keeping OS 3.x or forcing OS 4.0 on their device, making it sluggish as it doesn't have the hardware and processing power to run it properly.

I've not used my PC for 5 years, so should I go out and buy Windows 7 for it, to see if it becomes useful again? (second thoughts, I've got better things to spend my money on).

I've got a 2nd gen iPod Touch, and will still probably upgrade as the folders, improved email and iBooks would be worthwhile for me. Although I would like multi-tasking, I do accept that it doesn't support it. I'm quite likely to get an iPhone within the coming year anyway!

Phil

I'm sure you've already read this but, the iPhone 3G has the same limitations as the first gen iPhone, but yet the 3G gets the update.

 

[scottishwildcat]

"Thanks for paying $600 for the first iPhone back when we began. We now wanted to say, since the price has dropped $400 for the same model, we'd like to also drop you, and ram a pole through your mouth, in your intestine, and out the other side. Have an awesome day." - Steve-o & Co.

In all seriousness, I understand him. It's time to update for me anyway. My phone has cooked it Wifi chip, and now only works off Edge. In its defense though, it is 2 and a half years old. I want to upgrade anyhow, and it'll still continue to work. It's fine I guess.

Pretty lame defence, to be honest... if I pay $600 for a phone, I'd be pretty annoyed if it broke that badly after only two and a half years.

 

[kasei]

Not a big surprise here. My iPhone 2G works great on the latest OS update, but I can't really see it handling the new OS. Good on Apple to move forward regardless of the rants of a few people.

 

[HyperZboy]

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



1st generation: ARM11 620 MHz (underclocked to 400 MHz, then 412 MHz)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipod_touch

= iPhone 3G

"HOLY POWERPC BATMAN!​

Planned obsolescence for no valid technical reason from Steve Jobs!?!?!?

What do we do Batman?"​

"Never fear Fanboy Wonder, Steve Jobs has a plan for us all and even if that plan is crooked, do not worry Robin.
Jobs' reality distortion field will magically turn this into a "feature" and make us all happy again."

 

[HyperZboy]

How can this news been rated positive, should be all negative ratings, how can drop support be a positive thing? Do people really change phone every 6 months like some one mentioned here?

We plan to use the original iphone for 6 years and maybe more if it does not break, is that not possible? My parents' PC is nearly 7 year old and still benefit from a OS (win 7) upgrade and no compatibility issue. While understandable, I don't see why people consider dropping new software support for a 2 year old device is what things should be.

You must not know this site very well my young Padawan.

Many people here read any words from Steve Jobs as if it's the 5th Gospel of the Bible, The Gospel of Steve.

If Apple sold iDung from specially raised beetles in an environmentally safe manner, some people here would buy it. LOL

What's really a kick in the balls with this however is that the original iPhone buyers paid the MOST money for an iPhone, and only after a huge anti-Apple public clamor, did Apple decide to give original iPhone buyers a $100 credit.

That's probably been sticking in Steve Jobs' craw for years and he finally found a way to get even.

"NO SOUP FOR YOU! AND NO OS 4.0 TOO!"
​

PS: If you feel strongly about this decision by Apple as being a bad company decision and a poor way to treat its customers, I recommend flooding Discussions.Apple.com with complaints and urging others to do so too.
That's basically what caused Apple and Steve Jobs to hand out the $100 store credit to original iPhone buyers. Without the uproar here and on other sites by so many people, Apple would have never taken such action.
So I suggest making your voice known directly to Apple.
Most likely it will do nothing, but you never know, it did with the $100 rebate.

 

[ecapdeville]

...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...

Customers who don´t know the ins and outs of Iphones won´t care that neither...

 

[unid]

Isn't the recycle plan ship it to Japan to have the precious metals removed?

 

[twilson]

but could care less

Why do people say that? The expression is "I couldn't care less".

What you've said is you do care. I couldn't care less, says you don't care at all.

 

[AidenShaw]

What exactly is their recycling policy? Just ship it off to some 3rd party recycling vendor who then just turns around and sells it or part it out?

Or:

 

[ThatOneDude]

My issue with the whole thing is not that I can't get any of the new features; but that the new API's available for developers will prevent me from downloading new apps, or even updates to apps I already have.

 

[calebx]

Time to move on. You can still use your first-gen iPhone, but there are just too many reasons to upgrade.

Apple doesn't like to hang on to legacy-ware, and at the end of the day it's a good thing.

You truly are a too far gone mental case, L*T*D. Between you and the other Kool-Aid-drinking "Yes, Messiah! What ever you say, Messiah!", LagunaSol, the crap in here is at least waist-high.

If this were ANY company outside of your Saint Apple, you'd be screaming bloody murder. Literally, you'd want to see a Bill Gates or those two (much hipper, more brilliant) Google dudes beat up for it. You'd spout off by manipulation of the market and greed on the company's part and then you give a free pass to Steven H. Jobs Christ for a phone that only was introduced in 2007!!

You must have a pretty empty existence and obviously, a low bank account. lol I guess if being a financial martyr to Apple gives you a purpose, then more laughter for the rest of us. lol

I can't stand posts like these.

Want more "Microsoft announces the end of any use for the Zune in June, 2010. If you want to continue using our fine products, the Zune HD is available for purchase right now! Your existing Zune will blow up 5... 4... 3... 2... 1"

Imagine if Nintendo and Sega could remotely end the ability using a N.E.S. or a Sega Genisis purchased from a thift store for 20 bucks. Powers on and tells you "The Wii is available for purchase."

Yep.

 

[Sasha Trice]

Kudos MacRumors forum posters, the last two forum posts are full reasonable and positive feedback, with very little rant and rave-us fanboys might be growing up, eh?

I know right, this is awesome! Level headed responses from almost everyone, I guess if the story is not about Flash support we can all get along

 

[firewood]

I'm sure you've already read this but, the iPhone 3G has the same limitations as the first gen iPhone..

Nope. You forgetting about the other 2 (or more) ARM CPUs in the iPhone, plus all the other hardware, and the required firmware and drivers for all that stuff (including the very different sound drivers)

Limitations could be very different.

 

[nxent]

ha...and to think all my friends thought i was crazy for 'losing' my iphone 3g and upgrading to the 3gs when it first came out. now those fools can't even run the latest iphone os.

 

[marksandvig]

Wow, im surprised at the amount of negativity. Has no one here owned a Palm? I had to always buy a new phone for the updated OS. Besides, no one made promises to you when you bought the original iPhone that it would be supported by the latest software 3 years later. Your phone is not bricked, it will still make phone calls, txts, web browse, etc.

 

[pubwvj]

Apple should support MacOS9 on the iPhone! (and Macs) Actually, this wouldn't be all that hard.

 

[ct2k7]

Nope. You forgetting about the other 2 (or more) ARM CPUs in the iPhone, plus all the other hardware, and the required firmware and drivers for all that stuff (including the very different sound drivers)

Limitations could be very different.

Where are you getting this from?

ARM CPUs cannot work in tandem, because they compete. In fact, trying to put two ARM1176JZ(F)-S CPUs together will just cripple the way the processing works.

 

[Babybandit]

Explain why.

I'm not him - so maybe he's experienced something different. But personally, as a developer - the same code runs much smoother on the iPhone 3G than the iPhone. This could be due to hardware or optimization.

But before optimizing one of the Applications, I was getting around 120fs on the iPhone 3G and barely 25 in the original iPhone. I'm not exactly sure what caused such a huge difference. If you are interested in it - the iPhone 3GS was around 450.

The iPhone's spec may look the same as the 3G on the table, but when you're coding for it - there's a world of difference. It could be hardware, optimized code or both - but it's definitely faster with the same code. (Though we do end up optimizing it for each device before release).

 

[ct2k7]

I'm not him - so maybe he's experienced something different. But personally, as a developer - the same code runs much smoother on the iPhone 3G than the iPhone. This could be due to hardware or optimization.

But before optimizing one of the Applications, I was getting around 120fs on the iPhone 3G and barely 25 in the original iPhone. I'm not exactly sure what caused such a huge difference. If you are interested in it - the iPhone 3GS was around 450.

The iPhone's spec may look the same as the 3G on the table, but when you're coding for it - there's a world of difference. It could be hardware, optimized code or both - but it's definitely faster with the same code. (Though we do end up optimizing it for each device before release).

I'm going to be honest and say that I didn't get that much of a difference when coding and looking for optimisations. (I didn't code games, but intensive apps)

 

[cazlar]

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.

This is my major problem with this issue. I was always planning on updating to new hardware this year, but now if I give my old phone to a family member, they are stuck in a limbo-land where they cannot update to the latest version of an app because it requires 4.0. So as more and more apps become 4.0 only (due to needing multitasking etc), the app store becomes progressively more useless.

And if you somehow delete your archived copy of an app off your computer, you have no way of getting the "obsolete" version back - the app store only carries the latest. So unlike on a computer, where the developer may continue to allow downloads of older versions for compatibility reasons, there is no way o do this on the app store.

 

[rolphi]

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.

Your argument is inconsistent. If a customer is one who doesn't "know the ins and outs of iPhones" why would they know or care anything about OSs?

 

[iBug2]

I'm not him - so maybe he's experienced something different. But personally, as a developer - the same code runs much smoother on the iPhone 3G than the iPhone. This could be due to hardware or optimization.

But before optimizing one of the Applications, I was getting around 120fs on the iPhone 3G and barely 25 in the original iPhone. I'm not exactly sure what caused such a huge difference. If you are interested in it - the iPhone 3GS was around 450.

The iPhone's spec may look the same as the 3G on the table, but when you're coding for it - there's a world of difference. It could be hardware, optimized code or both - but it's definitely faster with the same code. (Though we do end up optimizing it for each device before release).

I'm not an expert on this but it might be because iPhone 3g's CPU is clocked at 532Mhz compared to iPhone 2G which runs at 412Mhz. Then again, if 412 Mhz would be crippled enough to stall with OS 4.0, probably 532 Mhz won't feel exactly "ok" either.

You can read the complete article here.

http://toucharcade.com/2008/07/07/under-the-hood-the-iphones-gaming-mettle/

 

[Bat Commander]

I'm not an expert on this but it might be because iPhone 3g's CPU is clocked at 532Mhz compared to iPhone 2G which runs at 412Mhz. Then again, if 412 Mhz would be crippled enough to stall with OS 4.0, probably 532 Mhz won't feel exactly "ok" either.

You can read the complete article here.

http://toucharcade.com/2008/07/07/under-the-hood-the-iphones-gaming-mettle/

The iPod touch 2G is 532MHz while the iPhone 3G remains at 412MHz.

From your article:

The Samsung chipset at the heart of the iPhone utilizes a 32-bit RISC ARM processing core, the ARM1176JZ(F)-S v1.0. The ARM device is capable of running at 620MHz, but Apple has downclocked it to 412MHz, presumably in the interest of extending battery life. (Apple has, at least once in the past, adjusted the clockspeed of both the processor and the system bus via firmware update.) Unlike the original iPhone, the 3G iPhone and the original iPod touch, the second-generation iPod touch features an ARM1176 v4.0 core running at 532MHz.

Love it when people post a nice easy fail because they can't read.

Key words are "Unlike the original iPhone, the 3G iPhone and the original iPod touch"

 

[iBug2]

The iPod touch 2G is 532MHz while the iPhone 3G remains at 412MHz.

From your article:



Love it when people post a nice easy fail because they can't read.

Key words are "Unlike the original iPhone, the 3G iPhone and the original iPod touch"

My bad. I just did a quick google search and posted before I rechecked it I suppose. Then again there have been several people here reporting that their games ran faster on 3G than they did on 2G, I also remember that back when Apple did release 3G, there was some discussion in the forums that games were running a bit faster with 3G although the hardware remained the same, user posts, not developer posts.