In your opinion.
In my experience, 8.1 is not "running just fine". Sluggish, apps closing. I've wiped it out and reinstalled 8.1 as a new device and manually added each app that I use and avoided installing infrequently used apps.
It's not an opinion.
And btw the number of installed apps has nothing to do with the "sluggishness" of an operative system.
I've seen iOS 8 run on several iPad 4 (we have 62 actually) and it works very well even with two heavy apps running in background.
----------
Many are reporting severe problems with iOS 8.1 on the iPad Air.
On this forum there are users reporting problems ON EVERY APPLE'S DEVICE, and still pretending they are buying one after another.
I trust my own eyes about that: on my iPad air and iPhone 5S it runs very very well.
----------
Are you saying that a customer who purchased an iPad 2 when it was released does not have the right to expect that iPad 2 to continue performing as it did when it was purchased?
NO ONE forced you to upgrade it.
It was released with iOS 4 almost four years ago. It runs fine with iOS 5, 6 and 7 (especially after 7.1).
As I don't live on Mars, like some users on this forum, I know perfectly well than add functionalities on old hardware comes at the price of performance.
----------
Which apple was selling how recently? Along with the original iPad mini, and the iPod touch they are selling now.
Why is it whining, when it's what apple has been selling?
Oh crap, I just saw who I am responding to - Nevermind. We know - Apple can do no wrong. Good bye.
IPad 2 was discontinued BEFORE iOS 8 release. If someone is so naive to buy a 2011 product in 2014 it's not my problem.
And about the iPad mini, I was disappointed about its downgraded hardware since the beginning, but we have more than 30 iPad minis working fine with iOS 7.1 installed (we avoid iOS 8).
Oh crappy, I just saw who I am responding to - Nevermind. We know - your Apple's product surely is defective like all the others. Good bye.
----------
Except the currently available iPad mini 1 is exactly the same as an iPad 2.
The iPad mini was a poor product at the launch's day, hardware wise, and it's a poor product today.
----------
So the people who downgrade wouldn't be able to use those type of apps. That's the trade off for them. Not sure how that really has any impact on anyone else or Apple or anything like that.
I'd prefer a different solution from Apple, like to limit software support earlier. In my opinion iPad 2, iPhone 4S and iPad mini shouldn't be allowed to receive iOS 8.
But in this case we'd have a lot of whining here about how cruel is Apple in not allowing users to install the latest iOS version, and a lot of non sense about the planned obsolescence.