What good are "new amazing features" if the update slows the device down to be virtually unusable? I've drawn my conclusion based on my first hand experiences with over a dozen iOS devices. I don't expect people who have different experiences than mine to draw the same conclusion... they'll obviously draw a different one.
Without fail, I've seen my devices consistently slow down with each major update (eg. going from 6.x to 7.x, then 7.x to 8.x). I'll update minor point releases if I'm experiencing issues with the current release and the point release addresses those issues without introducing (many) additional ones.
If Apple would allow downgrading, I would set my iPad 2 and iPad 4 back from 8.4 down to 6.1.6... where they were reliable, lightning fast, and buttery smooth.
I take your point and I agree with you. But if you would go back to iOS 6.1.6 in your iPad 2, doesn't that mean that you're upgrading? I mean, iPad 2 wasn't shipped with iOS 6.
I'm new on iOS, but an old OS X user. My actual iMac was shipped with Mac OS X Leopard, which was slightly better than Mac OS X Snow Leopard. However, OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion were awful. Fortunately, OS X Mavericks brought back what I was experiencing on Snow Leopard, so it boosted my device. I didn't upgrade to Yosemite. What I want to say is that there is not a mathematical correlation between upgrading and slowing down, even though it can exist many times.
Maybe iOS 9 is created to improve A7+ devices. Maybe not. Who knows?
Anyway, I agree with you. After reading all this post I come to the conclusion that:
- If no new features are interesting for that hypothetical user,
- If apps are still supported by his current version,
- If no bugs are being experimented in his current version,
- If he is not worried about security bugs (!),
- If it is well known that the device will slow down...
there is no reason to upgrade. Otherwise, doing it may be interesting.
Luckily, thanks to forums, reddit, reviews... we can know more or less whether a version will drop performance or not.
Thank you all.