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> ...Apple screwed them. The "slow-down" that no one talks about, which in my opinion is much more offensive, is that Apple creates new OSes that target a part

> ...Apple screwed them. The "slow-down" that no one talks about, which in my opinion is much more offensive, is that Apple creates new OSes that target a particular hardware platform and then push that same OS out to older handsets that don't have anywhere near enough horsepower to handle it. In particular I have an iPhone 4 running the last supported iOS. The device is effectively unusable. Everything is less than half as fast as it was out of the box. Gestures have to be done very slowly or the device misses them. Pressing the home button is not detected over 50% of the time. I don't use this device having upgraded handsets twice, but it'd be nice if apple would put older iOS versions into maintenance and provide bug fixes sans feature updates so that customers aren't given the choice of buggy and insecure software vs. effectively unusable hardware.

ghostbrainalpha 9y ago
I get what your saying but this is a very hard balancing act for Apple. I have an iMac from 2008 that is still working really well. I love what a fantastic machine they built, and for almost 10 years I could continue to upgrade the OS to get all the new features they developed. With the "High Sierra" update I found out my computer was too old to receive the new OS. This made me really upset at first, because there are a few apps I want that I can never have on that machine. But at some point if they continue to allow me to run the new OS it will result in an unusable device, like you are experiencing. But on either side of the fence you will have angry customers. Apple can protect customers from updates that won't work correctly on their devices, or it can deny them access to new apps and features they want on old devices. Either way the customers will be disappointed.
sixothree 9y ago
I've had a number of apple devices made unusable by an update to an OS version that it _clearly_ should not be running. That last time was a dumb thumb not thinking. It has burned me enough that I'm not even updating my iPad Mini 4 (the newest mini) to iOS 11.
skygazer 9y ago
If Apple devs/execs were forced to use old hardware, personally, this problem likely wouldn't exist. Whatever you don't focus on, suffers. It's not intentional. It's a product of incentive structures around novelty. It's the natural inclination not to maintain the long view.

ghostbrainalpha 9y ago

I get what your saying but this is a very hard balancing act for Apple. I have an iMac from 2008 that is still working really well. I love what a fantastic machine they built, and for almost 10 years I could continue to upgrade the OS to get all the new features they developed. With the "High Sierra" update I found out my computer was too old to receive the new OS. This made me really upset at first, because there are a few apps I want that I can never have on that machine. But at some point if they continue to allow me to run the new OS it will result in an unusable device, like you are experiencing. But on either side of the fence you will have angry customers. Apple can protect customers from updates that won't work correctly on their devices, or it can deny them access to new apps and features they want on old devices. Either way the customers will be disappointed.

sixothree 9y ago

I've had a number of apple devices made unusable by an update to an OS version that it _clearly_ should not be running. That last time was a dumb thumb not thinking. It has burned me enough that I'm not even updating my iPad Mini 4 (the newest mini) to iOS 11.

skygazer 9y ago

If Apple devs/execs were forced to use old hardware, personally, this problem likely wouldn't exist. Whatever you don't focus on, suffers. It's not intentional. It's a product of incentive structures around novelty. It's the natural inclination not to maintain the long view.