I would hope for this too... (I don't have an iPad 2 any more, but my sister and mum do, and they both seem fine running iOS7, plus the iPad Mini 1 has the same internals, so I can't see any reason for them not to update it)
The iPad 2 and the first generation iPad mini have the
same processor,
NOT the
same internals. This is likely where the latter got Siri and the former did not.
Remember, Apple typically only advertises upgrades to (a) the processor, (b) the wireless communications, (c) the camera, (d) the display, (e) software (which, when model specific aren't usually that way for any stated technical reason [Apple is very careful about keeping that a secret]), and (f) any oddball one-off that isn't in the previous five categories but isn't consistent enough to be considered a trend. Given this, the cut-off can happen anywhere and for any reason because right now, we're only discussing whether or not a device will or won't get the update based on the processor, the age, and whether or not it is still being sold (which frankly is a waste of time as there's enough data to suggest that this characteristic doesn't necessarily prove anything).
But a) they discontinued it mid-year to replace it with a newer-but-not-newest model at a lower price than the newest model. They did this for the iPod 4G with iOS 7 at almost the same time (presumably) for the same reason: not wanting to give it continued support.
and more importantly: b) the iPad 2 has been out ages now, its a perfectly capable device for running the latest OS, with almost no problems. This makes the iPad 2 a problem for Apple, with people not seeing a reason to upgrade - hence the declining iPad sales. Dropping support for it would likely give people a big nudge to upgrade.
Therefore, unfortunately, from a business point of view, it makes perfect sense for iOS8 not to support the iPad 2.
The other thing is that there may be underlying technologies in the iPad 2 that are no longer present in the newer iPads and iOS devices that Apple might just want to stop supporting for the sake of simplifying development. I agree with most people that killing support for the first generation iPad mini would be a trite bit TOO soon, but removing the 1024x768 resolution so that Apple has one less display resolution for both it and third party developers to maintain app support for might be prudent and much more easily done (without there being an outrage) than it would be to stop supporting the iPhone 4S, which probably has more of a marketshare than the iPad 2 and the first generation iPad mini combined.
Agreed, this has always annoyed me, but I'm guessing it's to do with the retina display being too much for the iPad to handle. Although it has improved with 7.1.
I own an iPad Air and have never had an issue with responsiveness. 7.1 made it even seem even faster than it already was.
Thats optimization between the iPad 64 bit and iOS 7. The iPad 4 handles the retina effortlessly. iPad 3 is an example of a table that can't handle the retina with the supporting hardware it was given. Its almost embarrassing to use 3D Fly Over on an iPad 3. My 4S albeit much smaller screen is nice and smooth over a city like NYC, iPad 3 is a laggy jerky mess.
Again, my iPad Air is perfectly smooth. Though I am told that iOS 7.x.x on the 5S, second generation iPad mini and iPad Air is different and more optimized for 64-bit than 7.x.x on anything A4-6 based.
When Apple announce it, is someone going to publish a list of all those who got it wrong so we can laugh at their inferior knowledge and a list of those of us who got it right so we can flaunt our superiority?
This is obviously something that people feel passionately about and we do need to know!
That's not the point of this thread. Though I am planning on revisiting it to update and hopefully the discussion can continue as we ponder the technological reasons why things that made the cut did and why things that didn't didn't and how Apple will continue to support the devices that they are supporting.
It's not "just like" the 3GS. The cumulative sales of the iPhone 4 are much higer than of the iPhone 3GS. Scale changes things.
You're completely right about non-US carriers, but that doesn't change the fact the actual price difference between an iPhone or an Android handset is much bigger outside the US. As a result, the competition is much stronger (and market share much lower).
The difference in sales between the 3GS and the 4 is not going to prompt Apple to issue an even more crippled (as iOS 7 can't really do much of anything on the iPhone 4) version of iOS 8 to iPhone 4 users. I do, however, believe that them supporting devices with the previous OS that can't update to the newest one with security patches like they've done with the 3GS and the fourth generation iPod touch, will carry over into iOS 7 on whatever devices are left out as they care about security.
Not it wasn't. The 3GS was discontinued 1 year before iOS 7 came out. The iPad 2 has not gotten 4 updates, only iOS 5, iOS 6 and iOS 7.
The iPad 2 has had four major versions of iOS. 4, 5, 6, and 7. You are now arguing semantics. Yes, it came with 4, so 5-7 were updates. Still that's four major versions of an operating system, which for iOS devices is pretty stellar given that the iPod touch never has lasted that long and given that iPhones only started lasting that long with the 3GS (and even then, they are not able to take anywhere near as much advantage of their fourth OS as the iPad 2 can with iOS 7). If support is dropped, (a) it will have had a good run, (b) it will be left in much better operating condition than its predecessor was with iOS 5.1.1, and (c) it will likely be for a good technological reason (to trim fat on supporting older hardware and easing development costs) and not just "greed". Though to be fair, Apple does have a responsibility to its shareholders to maximize profits. It's kind of what publicly traded companies do.
It doesn't do anything I use a tablet for any better. LTE is only if you have a 3G model, Retina is just screen quality, nothing to do with usability sure its nice but not a necessity, Siri is a point but I don't know anyone who uses it on an iPad (I use it all the time on my phone) , the lighting connector is just a connector, does the same thing as the 30 pin connector except Ooh I can put it in both ways. It has 3D Flyover and navigation that I frequently use, airdrop - again on the i device something that is more bother than its worth having to tell the other person to turn it on blah blah blah when I could just iMessage, the iPad 2 has face detection (It draws boxes around faces) and the front and back cameras again, still take photos, and i don't know anyone who uses their iPad as their main camera.
First off, I've boldfaced every instance that I could find where you use the word "I". I have done this to showcase to you how very self-centric your take on all of this is. (A) You're not the only iPad 2 user out there. (B) You're not the only iPad user out there. (C) Given (A) and (B), just because certain things either work or don't work for you given what you do, doesn't necessarily mean that the world around you agrees. My dad uses his third generation iPad as his main camera. Why? His Canon PowerShot is out of commission at the moment, and the camera on his Galaxy Nexus is not all that great. Works great for him. And it's a pretty great camera. The lightning connector, from your standpoint, sure, doesn't do much. From a technological standpoint it is unarguably an improvement; 8 programable pins that can do anything instead of 30 static pins is technically an improvement of the connector technology; and yes, it being reversible is a plus too.
Yes it is a trend, the trend apart from the iPod touch 4 is that apple devices even if they are sold along side newer devices, get another year of OS support after they are discontinued.
New trends have to happen a first time before they can happen subsequent times. Why else would they discontinue the iPad 2 in favor of re-introducing the fourth generation iPad in its place? BECAUSE IT'S OLD! (Again, not saying it isn't viable.)
I frequently use a wide range of iOS devices, including the iPad 3, iPhone 4S and iPod Touch 5. They're not that different to the iPad 2.
I use all of the devices listed in this poll except the iPhone 4. The third generation iPad is my dad's, but I'm regularly on it to make sure he hasn't gone over our allotted pooled data plan pool. The fifth generation iPod touch and the iPhone 4S are both snappier than the iPad 2. The iPad mini FEELS slightly snappier than the iPad 2, but they're both more or less in line with each other in terms of speed. I am told that my mileage here isn't that uncommon.
Because Apple sold the iPad 2 only months ago, thus being greed.
It was a poor move on their part to keep it going alongside a product three generations newer. Let alone alongside a product two (or one and a half if you consider the third generation to only be a half-step forward) generations newer last year. That said, they gave people the option to not buy it. I never paid full price for a 16GB iPad 2 during that time period. I knew not to. Similarly, I don't know anyone else who did unless it was as a present for someone tech-illiterate enough to not care that it was three generations old and likely to not be supported for much longer.
However, it wasn't greed. If they cut support for it, it won't be for greed; it will be because they want to simplify development and/or iOS 8 makes it run horribly.
By your logic (Because consumers should have known not to buy the iPad 2, even though Apple sold it as a full featured tablet up to March) , as a consumer, you should have known not to buy the first gen of everything, and that the iPad Mini already was outdated when it was released thus again not to buy it. Thus iPad Mini 1 and iPad 1 owners (by your logic) have 'nothing to complain about as we should blame the 'uninformed buyers'.
Apple didn't inform the public how well the A4 processor in the first generation iPad would perform over time. Really, I don't think even they knew. Similarly, Apple didn't inform the public that the iPad mini would not remain one processor generation behind and thusly that its successor would be more current. Again, given the technology that had to go into the retina iPad mini, they probably didn't know that at the time either. Thusly, there's no informing the public of what they themselves do not yet know. That said, when the third generation iPad came out, it was public knowledge that the iPad 2 was the generation prior. When the fourth generation iPad came out and the iPad 2 was still in the line, it was public knowledge that it was two generations behind. Same thing when it went on sale next to the iPad Air. Even next to the first generation iPad mini, you could put the iPad 2 next to it and Apple would highlight EXACTLY what was lacking in the latter but not the former. Apple didn't hide from the public what was different in the iPad 2. That was crystal clear for all the world to see. So yes, I do blame the uninformed buyer at that point and say that they have nothing to complain about. Being on the early adopter train for the first generation iPad and first generation iPad mini was a gamble, buying an iPad 2 when it was on sale alongside an iPad Air and potentially not getting support for iOS 8 isn't a gamble, it's a poor use of the resources (knowledge) available.
I don't care what the predecessor to the iPad 2 got. If Apple supports other A5 devices, it should support the iPad 2 (With a massive user base) as well.
Yes and if the processor dictated everything, that'd be a point worth considering. As it stands, they have limited tons of iOS features from devices due to things that have nothing to do with the processor. Similarly, the first generation Mac Pro has the muscle to run Mountain Lion and Mavericks, but couldn't due to a firmware difference (those early Core 2-architechture Xeons were absolutely fast enough for Mavericks). Sometimes Apple limits hardware that has the processing guts to run an OS for reasons other than the processor itself. Why is this such a hard concept for people?
Agreed, iPads shouldn't be limited to a 3 year cycle. iPads are more similar to Macs and should be given a 4 year lifespan.
Having spent over a grand on a 128GB iPad Air with Cellular, I'd like that too. It's highly dependent on the hardware and how easy it is for Apple to maintain support for it. Because that's the "greed" factor that you keep insisting on.
Archaic: Very old or old-fashioned: prisons are run on archaic methods.
Archaic = Pre intel Apple devices.
The iPad 2 has a massive user base, and was sold up until recently. It is not archaic as it performs almost every task that Apples newer iPads do. Also Apple continues to sell 3 products with very similar technology to the iPad 2 and still calls them modern devices.
No, the iPad 2 doesn't to a lot that its newer siblings do. It's just that for YOUR uses they are not important functions. But to say that it does almost everything the more current generations of iPad do is not accurate. The world does not revolve around you or your uses and neither does Apple.
Well, as I recall, in practically all respects iPad mini is like iPad 2, yet iPad mini has Siri while iPad 2 doesn't...so, if this than that doesn't really always hold, even when there's seemingly no good reason for it.
Remember, Apple only posts so many tech specs. There's a lot about the first generation iPad's differences from the iPad 2 that might determine whether or not an iOS device gets Siri.
BTW, I think customer base is a fruitless argument.
If they update the iPad 2 to iOS 8 then the customer base doesn't change. This argument will be the same next year for iOS 9.
Its not until Apple starts updating away from it will people start upgrading iPad's. So we could still be arguing why the iPad 2 doesn't get iOS 20 years from now.
So why would Apple (a hardware company) want to keep people from upgrading? Tired of making money?
iPad 2 has been an awesome device. However I think its seen its day and that day is long gone. There has been 3 iPad's since going onto 4 when iOS 8 is released. Seriously think about that, iPad 2 owners will be 4 versions behind.....yet somehow surprised its still not supported.
First time I've ever had empathy for Apple.
And the technically-inclined minority tend to forget that while having the newest OS is important to them, a vast majority of customers won't care. Even so, it is most likely the same bunch of people that bought the iPad 2 even when it was obviously a much older device are probably going to be the same ones that won't really care when it doesn't get a major iOS release. Try explaining to a total tech-illiterate what a new version of iOS even is.
Lets think about this, who always has their ipad with them? Its not as small or easily transportable as an iPhone, which would be the more likely candidate for people to be carrying around.
I carry around my cellular iPad mini almost everywhere I go and if I could go back in time, give it to my past self and say "yo, use this and your dumbphone together and never get a smartphone", I totally would and it would be great. They're substantially more portable than the full-sized iPads (though the Air improves this a bit) and much more easily transportable. You get cargo pants big enough you actually CAN put it in your pocket; though you'd look pretty ridiculous doing so.
