You said that you wouldn't spend 5 minutes to turn off a few features to make one of these devices perform better. Also a corrupt iOS install can happen on any device. That performance is not normal.
Oh bloody hell. 512 MB of ram may be bad for your business BUT NOT FOR ALL BUSINESSES. Most business I've come into contact with over the years are content to have their employees on XP machines, as they still do the job. Same thing with older iOS devices.
Consumers do not know, or are content with the iPad Mini 1. Otherwise why did the Mini 1 outsell the iPad Mini 2 and 3 last quarter? The average consumer does not know. Because yes I know many regular consumers who have bought an A5 device in the last year. Many regular consumers buy lower end devices as they don't have the money. Of the consumers I support regularly, most average consumers know nothing about what generation of what they're buying. People associate iPad = good and will last a long time.
Again your business is not the entire world. You'd be crazy to claim that. Many businesses use iOS devices for basic email,web browsing. Simple stuff. An A5 device can clearly handle simple stuff like that. I have family members who work in corporate environments. And wanna guess which iPad they have? oh surpassingly the iPad 2. It suits them fine.
20 - 25 percent of iPad users are on iPad 2s. A further 20-25 are on the iPad Mini 1( The number has actually risen across 2014), so clearly these people do not have a problem. I recognise that you have a problem in your workplace as you demand high performance, but for many businesses, schools, universities, homes and other places the A5 devices work fine.
Saying that your workplace can't work with A5 devices is not a justification for them dropping devices which they currently sell, thus ripping off the many consumers who have bought them in the last 6 months, and are still buying them at the moment.
Thats like saying that the Macbook Air doesn't suit a video studio, so apple should drop the Macbook Air from support.
I don't disagree with the fact that these devices don't work well in some businesses, what you're saying but you are being elitist here, palming off what I have seen and experienced.
How about we stop arguing. Its really gonna do no good, as we both have very different ideas here.
For the bold: thats not using mobile devices for Businesses. Using mobile devices for businesses is having B2B apps, customized for your company. Whether its downloading images of your products to show on your iPad (high resolution obviously or whats the point, which the A5 Devices cannot handle) Converting Invoices, orders to PDF format and sending it to the main system and SQL server, uploading high resolution images, sending them through the server, etc etc etc. Scanning for inventory, scan and pack for logistics.
Thats using mobile devices for businesses. Using an iPad to send emails and basic stuff like that is not an using mobile apps for business. Thats not a Business integrated system. Nothings linked, nothing is automated.
Most business industries don't have time wait on old devices, thats why they continue to upgrade. They upgrade their cubicle desktops, their mobile devices, Servers, etc etc. Whether its banking, fashion, tools, cars, what ever it maybe because they use servers, everyone uses databases.
Regular consumers as in who? i really have to know your age range to really get what kind of consumer base your talking about.Younger people and kids know the tech specs. We grew up with computers, younger kids grew up with smartphones and tablets.
Why wouldn't they Drop the A5 devices? obviously the individuals that buy it don't care about the latest devices or OS. Otherwise they'd either know or do some homework before dropping money on it. Not to mention every OS up to date has made it slower on every previous device.
The thing is theres no sense, to optimize and for an obsolete device that isn't going to have much of lifespan and which can't handle a lot of the functions that the current models can do.
Whats more cost efficient then paying labor, like what apple would be doing to do optimize for the A5 devices having a team working on the OS. Or just dropping the model and forcing them to buy the newer models. The answer is quite clear.
Its a waste of time for the developer, waste of time for my customer and costly if they want to optimize it for that old device. That labor that they're gonna request with all the programming changes is going to be cost of 2-3 iPad Air 2s.
The customer isn't going to pay me $125 (i don't get the full $125, just the company rate for support, and $125 isn't part of the programming labor involved) an hour to update their inventory of iPad 2s to optimize for them + plus the hours i spent to do what i actually came to do. There is no elite point of view, its just common sense.
i come across XP at work too, all they do is one function like printing, because you'd have to go through hell linking it to a newer computer with a newer OS because the printer is so old. whether it be a barcode label printer, huge laser, etc etc. Thats the only thing they use it for, those computers they bought back then can't nearly work with todays technology, technology as in the most recent programs that have more features, and I'm not talking about basic programs, im talking about ERPs, PLM, etc etc.
We both have very different ideas because we're in both different environments, i agree.
But the main topic was about apple dropping support for A5 devices on the next iOS. Which i do not agree with you, we can just leave it at that.
Its not more to prove you wrong, its just letting you on an insight of how difficult it is to work with these older devices with 512MB of ram. Hey if the A5 devices were able to have 1 GB of ram, i wouldn't be saying any of this.
. Now, it is running mediocre on 8.3. At this point, the lag is ok but, bearable. 
