As long as A6 is supported, perhaps it's not much effort to keep A5 support around. The next choke off should be all non 32 bit devices. With that, Apple can draw a line in the sand and move forward by focusing only on 64 bit and putting 32 bit where it belongs, in the past.
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iPad When will iPad 2 no longer support latest iOS?
- Thread starter RickMC
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That will also successfully break the fragment promise once and for all. Pushing forward is necessary, but apple is not a company serving a minority of people.
If they do this, they will surely lose tons of potential customers. If they complete it in two generations, Apple will become a completely high end brand. Lots of the market share will be given generously to Android and windows phone.
By the way, if this is what apple want to do, no problem. We can not affect much of their decision.
The thing is that especially on the iPad side, its not a minority.
Around 20-25 percent of iPads users are on the iPad 2, around 20-22 percent on the iPad Mini 1, around 12 percent on the iPad 3 and the iPad 4 has around 15 percent market share. That is a HUGE number of iPads, and these numbers won't go down quickly either given how long people retain their iPads for.
If you looked at Macrumours you'd think that barely anyone is on anything older than A7, but for the general population, so many people are on A5 and A6 devices.
Yes this. iOS 8 is a mess on A7 devices so its not surpirsing that its a mess on A5 devices. There seems also to have been the rumour or leak that Apple is optimising a version especially for A5 devices by starting with an optimised core OS and then turning on features one by one to ensure that the best possible performance is achieved.
And iOS 8 is also a huge mess on latest A8 chips as well. IOS 8.4 beta is better, but iOS 8.3 brings iOS to its worst time. I have noticed a local apple store has restored their demo iPhone back to 8.2 (they use 8.3 before. I know).
Apple surely need to heavily optimise the software to bring back current user, otherwise, who knows what would happen.
Hmm. I actually think that my devices have ran the best out of all the iOS 8 updates, on 8.3.
It quit working effectively with IOS 8.xx. It's slow and web pages must constantly be reloaded which makes surfing the web like floating in the bathtub.
Reloads are common on pretty much every iOS device bedsides the iPad Air 2... iOS 8 is so terrible with memory management, but yes 512MB of ram make it more noticeable.
I agree. iOS 9 on 32-bit devices will probably be very limited compared to 64-bit ones. Then the next one (iOS X?) will probably be 64-bit only. Those two releases will probably be the ones that really take advantage of the 64-bit devices. 8 already started it, with Metal, so you can probably see where
are going with 64-bit.
I agree. iOS 9 on 32-bit devices will probably be very limited compared to 64-bit ones. Then the next one (iOS X?) will probably be 64-bit only. Those two releases will probably be the ones that really take advantage of the 64-bit devices. 8 already started it, with Metal, so you can probably see where
Your prediction reminds me when Microsoft release windows phone 8. Windows phone 7 was the very first release of the windows phone os. It was gorgeous in design and some concept, but its functionality was extremely poor. After releasing windows phone 8, Microsoft announced that all devices running Windows phone 7 would not be possible to upgrade to Windows phone 8 since 8 used windows NT while windows phone 7 used windows ce.
However, iOS version update or upgrade is a totally different story. IOS is way more mature than windows phone, and iPhone is one of the most popular mobile phone devices in the world. If apple just throw all 32 bit devices directly into dust bin while lots of people still uses A5 and A6 in iOS 10, this could be a really bad idea.
That is why I'm suggesting that there should be a build-up. iOS 9 should have lots of new features (but still with opt and stab improvements) for 64-bit devices and then remove a whole bunch of features in 32-bit devices. My prediction is that iOS X will be such a huge release that it might well take more than a year to produce, and by that time, the latest 32-bit device will be 3 years old, so they must expect it to lose support at sometime. Can't wait for then though
So, after a series of software stability and optimisation issues, Apple try to slow down their iOS developing speed to make software more stable and more reliable? Well, if it is that, I would be really pleased.
Whether what version of iOS apple will call, that is only a number. Version number is the easiest way to let user know if this software has updates.
Due to the significant amount of 32bit devices, I think iOS 10 will remain the support to 32bit, probably until iOS 11. After that, drop every 32bit devices in iOS 12. Then, developers will only need to optimise for 64 bit rather than 32bit.
Pfft, nah. You suggesting that A6 devices will go through 5 updates? Nobody expects their devices to run that long. Even if iOS 9 wasn't supported on A5 devices, barely anybody would be surprised. I mean, it can't be worse than the original iPad's lifetime.
5 updates? Oh, iOS 6 to iOS 11. A6 has lower market share than A5 processor. Yes.
What I want to expect is a possible time for apple to drop all 32bit processors. I didnt notice the iOS support version count. However, a6 chip is not so bad, since iPhone 5c and 5 is still using them.
Well. I suspect this would never happen.
I'm hoping that the reports of iOS 9 being a clean-up, optimization release are true. It would also be a good time for Apple to be a bit more conservative in what devices they allow to upgrade to a newer version of iOS. They should draw the line so that performance and stability are preserved. How wasteful to have a tablet made of premium materials and superior design only to have performance that degrades within a year or two (due to upgrades that the hardware can't handle properly).
If they continue to allow upgrades for devices that can't properly handle the latest version, they should at the very least allow the option to downgrade.
Apple may never allow user to downgrade. Downgrading means software fragmentation. Developers either completely abandon customers downgrading iOS, or go back to either develop special software for outdated iOS, or still keep the software requirement to the oldest version X code supports. I think except some ancient software, most of them should already raise the minimum requirements to iOS 6. After releasing iOS 9, iOS 7 would probably the minimum system requirements.
Apple is a firm with strong self awareness. Tell you what? This could let the whole company, uh, I mean, then apple may fail to listen to user feedback effectively.
Odds are decent that the iPad 2 will not be given the ability to run iOS 9. A5 performance on iOS 8 isn't great and Apple has already bent backwards to try to optimize performance to no real avail.
That said, before you even consider whether or not your iPad 2 will even run iOS 9 and use that to determine when you upgrade, you might want to consider your experience with it on iOS 8 as many iPad 2 users have already moved to the iPad Air 2.
But the truth is: many users still use iPad mini first generation. And iPod touch fifth generation is still on sale. They are using the same A5 chip as iPad 2 is using.
Discontinuing iPad 2 means all similar A5 chip devices will be thrown away as well. This could lead to great software fragmentation, immediately. If apple does this, then ok, Apple will become a completely high end brand, focusing on fashion and trend, not a regular technology brand.
If they decide to do so, that is fine. Although I believe, countless users are praying apple could support old devices as they have insufficient money to buy the latest and the greatest. Plus, this is seriously necessary for apple because iOS 8 is also a pain on many iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus as well.
All in all, despite the support guess, Apple will cripple itself if they take no action on software optimisation. Forcing latest iOS running on legacy devices could be a really good try.
Many people were still on PowerPC when Apple stopped supporting them. The fact of the matter is that the first generation iPad mini is sold as an extreme budget tablet to compete with Android's lowest-end tablets. For it to still be sold ought to not necessarily mean that Apple will keep on putting out updates. It just means that Apple is now not opposed to selling things that aren't that great in terms of speed. The iPod touch is on life support. They still sell it because it's still viable as a music player, albeit barely (thank you iOS 8).
Discontinuing support for an old processor does not a software fragmentation make. If Apple continued to sell the fifth generation iPod touch and the first generation iPad mini past the launch of the first version of iOS that couldn't run it, THEN that'd be fragmentation. That's to say that Apple has until the actual launch of iOS 9 to discontinue those products if iOS 9 is to drop support for them. This is not out of the realm of possibility, even if it is unprecedented.
I think people with devices that old are praying that Apple doesn't release an update to the operating system that cripples its performance that much more. Provided security patch releases came out (like what Apple did for the fourth generation iPod touch and the iPhone 3GS with iOS 6.1.6), this will not present a problem to users being left behind...if anything, they are given that much MORE time to enjoy using what they already have.
They won't release an update that won't run on that hardware. They're historically more open to dropping support for hardware if they feel that further versions of the software accomplish nothing (due to lack of the muscle to utilize new features) other than making it unusable.
Yes. For apple it is a decent product still running the latest operating system. However, would apple sell a product which is definitely unable to receive the latest software update? (not iOS X.0.1, but iOS X+1) Yes. I admit that iPhone 4 is still available in certain market. For ipod touch, as a music player, what I want to say is as long as it can install apps, store music, then all would be fine.
Yes. You are right. However, iOS 8 is not only slowing down old devices, but also some new devices such as iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. From now, only iPad Air 2 with 2GB ram is free from bunches of issues. I must say, even on iOS 8.4 beta 3 (Yes, this beta), there are still issues persist. You may say this is a beta software so bugs are highly possible. But after a long time use (more than a month), this beta is very close to a final version of iOS.
So, according to your statement, Apple will likely drop software support when they realize this device is unable to support much latest and greatest features, rather than becoming unusable. If I just simply see this, I may think this is really awesome.
Nevertheless, before WWDC comes, nothing would be finalized. Guessing what they are going to do is becoming meaningless.
I am not a core Apple user, though.
I find the iPad 2 actually runs iOS 8 decently - certainly better than it ran iOS 7.