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The FUTURE of the A4 devices!

S

Spectrum Abuser

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 27, 2011
1,377
48
Now that the iPhone five is just a few weeks away I thought it would be a perfect time to start a thread for the phasing out hardwares future.

Post your predictions on these monsters! Here is the example template.

iPhone 4(iP4), Ipod touch 4th Generation(iPT4), iPad 1.

iPhone 4- Supported at least until the end of iOS 6 although I'm betting all through iOS7.
iPod touch 4th Gen- Support through all of iOS 5 and iOS 6. No iOS 7.
iPad 1- Support through all of iOS 5 and iOS 6. Most likely no iOS 7 support.

And now the reasoning I give for my idea. The iPhone 4 has 512Mb of ram while the iPod touch 4th gen and iPad 1 both sported only 256Mb. HOWEVER! The iPad 1 has a full clocked 1Ghz processor while the iPod touch and iPhone had an underclocked A4. So the iPad 1 could still be supported by iOS 7 but have little RAM left for actually running applications.
 
Just as a note, all versions of the iPod touch (except for the 4th gen so far) have / will support(ed) atleast 2 major updates past the one they shipped with.

1st gen: supported up to 3.1.3 from 1.1
2nd gen: supported 2.1.1 to 4.2.1
3rd gen: 3.1.1 to 4.3.5 (will support 5.0)

Same goes for the iPhone models and so far the 1st iPad.

So, what does this mean? If each device model continues to support atleast 2 major updates, then we can expect the 3rd gen touch to end support after iOS 5, the 4g touch to end support after iOS 6, the iPad 1 to end support after iOS 5, the iPad 2 to end support after iOS 6 (possibly iOS 7 because of the dual core processor), the 3GS to end after iOS 5, and the iPhone 4 to end software support after iOS 6.

This is just an assumption based on prior knowledge (the fact that previous devices have ended support after 2 major updates).
 
Last edited:
batting1000 said:
Just as a note, all versions of the iPod touch (except for the 4th gen so far) have / will support(ed) atleast 2 major updates past the one they shipped with.

1st gen: supported up to 3.1.3 from 1.1
2nd gen: supported 2.1.1 to 4.2.1
3rd gen: 3.1.1 to 4.3.5 (will support 5.0)

Same goes for the iPhone models and so far the 1st iPad.

So, what does this mean? If each device model continues to support atleast 2 major updates, then we can expect the 3rd gen touch to end support after iOS 5, the 4g touch to end support after iOS 6, then iPad 1 to end support after iOS 5, the iPad 2 to end support after iOS 6 (possible iOS 7 because of the dual core processor), the 3GS to end after iOS 5, and the iPhone 4 to end software support after iOS 6.

This is just an assumption based on prior knowledge (the fact that previous devices have ended support after 2 major updates).
Click to expand...

I still stand firm with the iPhone 4 having a chance at getting iOS 7. Not so much because of the processor, but because of the fact that it has 512MB of ram. It won't have a problem running future iOS's with that surplus amount. If Apple could get 128MB of ram to run iOS 4, then they can get 512MB of the stuff to run iOS 7.
 
Spectrum Abuser said:
I still stand firm with the iPhone 4 having a chance at getting iOS 7. Not so much because of the processor, but because of the fact that it has 512MB of ram. It won't have a problem running future iOS's with that surplus amount. If Apple could get 128MB of ram to run iOS 4, then they can get 512MB of the stuff to run iOS 7.
Click to expand...

Well that was with most of the features that needed the RAM removed. We've yet to see what's to come in iOS 7, obviously, so we can't really say much yet.
 
for me...as far the iPhones are concerned

iPhone 1 1+2=iOS3

iPhone 2 (3g) 2+2=iOS4

iPhone 3 (3gs) 3+2=iOS5

iPhone 4 4+2=iOS6

iPhone 5 5+2= iOS7

and so on...:D;)
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_10 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E600 Safari/6533.18.5)

I think it really depends on how far the future iOS releases deviate from what we have seen. If they make MAJOR GUI changes, we may not see the support cycle last as long as it did originally. The 3GS, however will likely have the longest cycle. Mainly because there is really not A big difference between the 4 and 3GS processor wise. But, the 3GS has a much lower resolution so it should really be able to push graphics as easily as the 4, or close. But back to what I said, the 3GS was SOOOO far ahead of it's time, had a fast, great processor, an actually GPU, and the only thing cloar was the droid, and it came out almost 6 months after the 3GS. With that said the droids GPU was power VR SGX530, the 3GS had the SGX535, and also a much faster processor out of the box. 833mhz(downlocked to 600) vs a 600mhz TI OMAP 4330(downclocked to 550). In short, I doubt we will see a phone that will last as long as the 3GS. It's one of the few phones where the software updates will outlast the actual hardware. End rant
 
amdmaxx said:
i bet you are wrong.
ios6 should be optimized for A6 processor/graphics.
Click to expand...

Are you implying the iPhone 5 with the rumored A5 won't be capable of running ios6? That will not be the case, considering iP4 currently runs ios5 flawlessly.
(Maybe you weren't implying that.) :)
 
amdmaxx said:
i bet you are wrong.
ios6 should be optimized for A6 processor/graphics.
Click to expand...

Optimized, mean it was made to work >> better << on a certain device, but can still be run on previous versions of the device, although you may not see the same performance as the device the software was optimized for.
 
My iP4 runs widgets just fine on the homescreen and they are made by indie developers. Even with animated weather on it still runs very decently. So if it can run un-optimised tweaks from the jailbreak community I'd imagine Apple could make the phone shine. Now if we see some kind of outstanding iOS that makes our current version look like the 90's then I'd understand.

Remember though, folks. The iMac G3 originally had OS8 on it and was supported all the way up until Tiger(10.4). Comparing Tiger to OS8 is night and day. So I would NEVER doubt that Apple could not do it.
 
Ksizzle9 said:
I think it really depends on how far the future iOS releases deviate from what we have seen. If they make MAJOR GUI changes, we may not see the support cycle last as long as it did originally. The 3GS, however will likely have the longest cycle. Mainly because there is really not A big difference between the 4 and 3GS processor wise. But, the 3GS has a much lower resolution so it should really be able to push graphics as easily as the 4, or close. But back to what I said, the 3GS was SOOOO far ahead of it's time, had a fast, great processor, an actually GPU, and the only thing cloar was the droid, and it came out almost 6 months after the 3GS. With that said the droids GPU was power VR SGX530, the 3GS had the SGX535, and also a much faster processor out of the box. 833mhz(downlocked to 600) vs a 600mhz TI OMAP 4330(downclocked to 550). In short, I doubt we will see a phone that will last as long as the 3GS. It's one of the few phones where the software updates will outlast the actual hardware. End rant
Click to expand...

The problem I see with the processor argument is that the original iPhone and 3G had the same processor. The 3G just added, well, 3G. Yet the original iPhone never got iOS 4.
 
pik. said:
for me...as far the iPhones are concerned

iPhone 1 1+2=iOS3

iPhone 2 (3g) 2+2=iOS4

iPhone 3 (3gs) 3+2=iOS5

iPhone 4 4+2=iOS6

iPhone 5 5+2= iOS7

and so on...:D;)
Click to expand...

Agreed. And that's probably how it'll be.
Even though a Dual Core or Quad Core iPhone could handle more future OS.
 
Reach9 said:
Agreed. And that's probably how it'll be.
Even though a Dual Core or Quad Core iPhone could handle more future OS.
Click to expand...

Thats not to say a 1Ghz CPU can't handle it decently. Of course it won't run as fast as the iPhone 6 or 7 but the moral is it could run it.
 
batting1000 said:
Just as a note, all versions of the iPod touch (except for the 4th gen so far) have / will support(ed) atleast 2 major updates past the one they shipped with.

1st gen: supported up to 3.1.3 from 1.1
2nd gen: supported 2.1.1 to 4.2.1
3rd gen: 3.1.1 to 4.3.5 (will support 5.0)

Same goes for the iPhone models and so far the 1st iPad.

So, what does this mean? If each device model continues to support atleast 2 major updates, then we can expect the 3rd gen touch to end support after iOS 5, the 4g touch to end support after iOS 6, then iPad 1 to end support after iOS 5, the iPad 2 to end support after iOS 6 (possible iOS 7 because of the dual core processor), the 3GS to end after iOS 5, and the iPhone 4 to end software support after iOS 6.

This is just an assumption based on prior knowledge (the fact that previous devices have ended support after 2 major updates).
Click to expand...

At Bolded: But the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation share the same internals as the iPad 1 (besides the iPhone 4's ram). So logically, shouldnt that mean if the iPod touch 4 gets iOS6 then shouldnt the iPad 1 get iOS 6 as well?
 
Supporting older hardware is a Marketing decision first. Second is the capability of the hardware. Apple will support old equipment as long as they see an advantage to Apple!
 
TheSuperSteve said:
At Bolded: But the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation share the same internals as the iPad 1 (besides the iPhone 4's ram). So logically, shouldnt that mean if the iPod touch 4 gets iOS6 then shouldnt the iPad 1 get iOS 6 as well?
Click to expand...

The iPhone 4 has 512MB of RAM while the iPod touch 4 and iPad 1 have 256MB of RAM.
 
TheSuperSteve said:
I know.

My point still stands. I think iPad 1 should support iOS6 if the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4 do.
Click to expand...

Oh, now I see why I said that. It was because the iPad 1 shipped with iOS 3.2 and if it continued the pattern of supporting only two major software updates like past iPhones and iPod touch's, it would support up to atleast iOS 5.
 
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