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Will Series 3 be supported for the next couple of years?

Sirious

Sirious

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 2, 2013
1,671
2,864
United Kingdom, London
Hi there,
New user so please go easy on me!

I am considering to buy a series 3 watch for my dad but I am not sure if it will be made completely useless within the next 2 years...
We compared it with the series 5, and we simply agree series 3 might be a better option for him and it does more than he could ever need it to.

Is Apple likely to drop support for it next year or something?
Anything else we should consider in terms of support?
 
Even if she did it would not become completely useless. I’ve just bought one and it’s great. If it gets no more updates and continues to be like this I’m happy
 
I think it's unlikely Apple will drop support within the next year, or even 2. They are still selling them brand new right now and it would be un-Apple for them to sell a product that won't receive updates so quickly.

I'm sure there is a precedent set with older iPhones that are sold alongside new models. Anyone know?
 
witnesser said:
Hi there,
New user so please go easy on me!

I am considering to buy a series 3 watch for my dad but I am not sure if it will be made completely useless within the next 2 years...
We compared it with the series 5, and we simply agree series 3 might be a better option for him and it does more than he could ever need it to.

Is Apple likely to drop support for it next year or something?
Anything else we should consider in terms of support?
Click to expand...

I’d say 2021 would probably be the last year for the series 3, maybe 2022 at the very latest. The Series 3 released in 2017, if OS support ended by 2022, that’s five years, which would probably put it at its max-lifespan.
 
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Even if Apple stops software support your device will not be rendered completely useless. It will continue working with the capabilities offered with whatever last update you downloaded onto the device.
 
They are still selling it. No way they drop support for at least 3 years from now.

Keep in mind, they've only seen had processor upgrade since the 3 (the 4 and 5 have the same CPU) so it isn't as big a change hardware wise as you'd suspect considering the original sell dates of the series 3.
 
bag99001 said:
They are still selling it. No way they drop support for at least 3 years from now.

Keep in mind, they've only seen had processor upgrade since the 3 (the 4 and 5 have the same CPU) so it isn't as big a change hardware wise as you'd suspect considering the original sell dates of the series 3.
Click to expand...
If I am not mistaken, the processor in s4/s5 is a 64bit processor. So to me it sounds like the step from iPhone 5 to 5s.
 
I very much doubt Apple would still be selling the Series 3 in 2020 if they were looking to stop supporting it in the next couple of years. Maybe support will stop in 2023 but highly sceptical it would stop before as Apple could leave themselves wide open for claims from those buying it this year!

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Agree with others. As they’re still selling it I would expect at least 3 years support but more likely longer.
 
9 replies and nobodyhas asked what the OP means by support.

If you mean how long will it get the latest software then I agree with 3 years after it goes off sale (minimum) for supporting the new version of WatchOS.

If, as I suspect, you mean how long will your father be able to use it, after it receives its last operating system update there will be several more years of support as a usable product. The S0 is still supported today - it works with iOS 13 even though it can’t even run WatchOS5, never mind 6.

Despite what you might read, even on here where people should know more about it, Apple is fantastic at supporting older gear.

They’re also fantastic at the art of the beautifully pitched incremental upgrade making people lose sight of the fact their old kit is just as good as it was the day they bought it - better in fact as it will have been updated with extra features during that time.

The iPhone SE has just launched as the previous SE from 2016 is about to be unable to run iOS14 (presumably), but the old SE will still work with iOS13 for people who are happy to do that.
 
yellowbunny said:
Even if she did it would not become completely useless. I’ve just bought one and it’s great. If it gets no more updates and continues to be like this I’m happy
Click to expand...
Bear in mind though that if they introduce new iPhone models and you buy one of these new phones, your older Apple watch may not work. This happened to me with a series 0 watch and the iPhone 11. Watch makes a very expensive paper weight now.
 
Janeilfen said:
Bear in mind though that if they introduce new iPhone models and you buy one of these new phones, your older Apple watch may not work. This happened to me with a series 0 watch and the iPhone 11. Watch makes a very expensive paper weight now.
Click to expand...

you can pair series 0 with iPhone 11. I use my S0 as a sleep tracker with my S4.
 
rdy0329 said:
you can pair series 0 with iPhone 11. I use my S0 as a sleep tracker with my S4.
Click to expand...
Well, that is very interesting. Back in September 2018 I was told by the Apple store that the series 0 watch would no longer be supported by any iPhones running the latest version of iOS. When I bought my iPhone 11, I tried to pair it but it wouldn't work. Has something changed? I just dug my old series 0 out from under a pile of detritus, and what do you know - it pairs.
Thank you for the info but I'm still a bit confused.
 
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Janeilfen said:
Well, that is very interesting. Back in September 2018 I was told by the Apple store that the series 0 watch would no longer be supported by any iPhones running the latest version of iOS. When I bought my iPhone 11, I tried to pair it but it wouldn't work. Has something changed? I just dug my old series 0 out from under a pile of detritus, and what do you know - it pairs.
Thank you for the info but I'm still a bit confused.
Click to expand...

You were not quoted correctly from an Apple representative. Your First Gen Apple Watch can pair, but it won’t receive software watchOS updates. Meaning, you can still use some of the core functionality, but you will not receive any stability/patches for performance.
 
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Janeilfen said:
Well, that is very interesting. Back in September 2018 I was told by the Apple store that the series 0 watch would no longer be supported by any iPhones running the latest version of iOS. When I bought my iPhone 11, I tried to pair it but it wouldn't work. Has something changed? I just dug my old series 0 out from under a pile of detritus, and what do you know - it pairs.
Thank you for the info but I'm still a bit confused.
Click to expand...

You’re welcome. You now have 2 watches to switch around with.

To add to what was said, Notifications + Quick replies, Workout (without competition) tracking and syncing w/ iPhone will still work. Lastly, you can still use it for sleep tracking/beater watch like what I’m doing.
 
rdy0329 said:
You’re welcome. You now have 2 watches to switch around with.

To add to what was said, Notifications + Quick replies, Workout (without competition) tracking and syncing w/ iPhone will still work. Lastly, you can still use it for sleep tracking/beater watch like what I’m doing.
Click to expand...
So were the Apple guys just plain wrong in what they told me, or did Apple relent and decide to support the series 0 for longer?

This has reminded me though about how inferior the series 0 battery is compared with the series 3. And I had the battery replaced at some point in the series 0, due to it swelling and popping the screen off.
 
Janeilfen said:
So were the Apple guys just plain wrong in what they told me, or did Apple relent and decide to support the series 0 for longer?

This has reminded me though about how inferior the series 0 battery is compared with the series 3. And I had the battery replaced at some point in the series 0, due to it swelling and popping the screen off.
Click to expand...

They supported it from the very release of iPhone 11 and iOS 13. The Apple specialist just wasn’t well versed with what he was saying, it happens with retail jobs.
 
thank you for the replies everyone!
Sorry, should have mentioned that I was talking about software support from Apple.

We ended up going for it and its been great since he put it on lol...
The 38mm does not look tiny anymore, or maybe im used to my 40mm? lol
 
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