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Poll: Which iOS version do you require?
Each iOS app has a minimum iOS version that's required. You can see this on iTunes in the left column. For example, foursquare requires iOS 4.0:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/foursquare/id306934924?mt=8
If you're an iOS developer, which version do you require for your apps? If it's different for different apps, just pick the most common one.
- Tomek_Kopczuk 15y agoAccording to Bump's statistics from Jan 2011, 90% of all iOS devices run iOS 4.x. We decided to target 3.1.3, because while using 4.0 features would make development a bit quicker, we calculated that additional 10% (it was a bit more back then in favor of 3.1.3) is still worth it. http://www.quora.com/What-proportion-of-all-iPhone-owners-use-iOS4-%2a-today http://www.quora.com/What-proportion-of-all-iPhone-owners-us...
- gte910h 15y ago6 months later I've seen 95%+ @ greater than 4.0 from several different apps.
- to3m 15y agoDo you think anybody still on 3.x will actually spend money on random apps for their phone, that aren't backed by some massive marketing campaign and/or network effects? (Obviously, if you're working on such an app, my thinking might not apply ;) It's a genuine question, even though it sounds rhetorical. The same applies to people still using pre-3GS devices. I'm working on the assumption that these people simply won't spend (much) money on apps, and that the effort involved in supporting older devices and OSs won't ever be repaid. If it's going to take you even one day, probably not worth bothering. iOS development is a crapshoot enough, without your spending time trying to support a wider range of devices. The longer you spend coding support for older devices, the smaller the percentage of the market they will be by the time you release. (This is particularly true for OpenGL stuff, but I imagine it goes for Cocoa as well.)
- Tomek_Kopczuk 15y agoIt is a very good question indeed. And the answer is - yes, I do think so (actually I did 1 year ago, because now the 3.x market share is close to nil). Many 3G owners do wonders to downgrade back to 3.x for performance reasons. And they do spend money. Consider European markets where costs to upgrade iPhone 3G to 3GS/4G are much more than $200.
- allwein 15y agoI was working with a large retailer to develop a free iOS app. For the initial release, they wanted to target the widest number of users that they could, so our requirements were 3.1+ only. We included a bunch of analytics to track use and client statistics. After being live for 45 days, it has around 50,000 users total at this point. Of those 50,000 users, less than 2% (817) were using pre-4.0 devices. At that point, it was easy to convince them to abandon 3.x support for the next version, which will greatly simplify a lot things for us. I'm anxious to see how quickly 5.0 is adopted once it hits.
- Tomek_Kopczuk 15y agoI predict it will be adopted even quicker than the 4.x branch, due to new notifications. Much sought after feature. Few months and 4.x market share will probably be close to 3G market share.
- Xuzz 15y agoI'm interested to know how the people targeting iOS releases other than 4.3, 4.2, and 3.1 actually test on those platforms before release (ignoring the simulator for now — many apps don't work there at all, and it often has subtly different behavior that can cause crashes when running on a device). The issue here is that Apple specifically blocks restoring to any firmware except the very latest available. Since the iPhone 3GS and iOS 3.0, only the most recent firmware released for that device is allowed to be installed onto the device. And, to be very clear: that doesn't mean no downgrades, it means only the very latest is allowed. And that's even through Xcode's Organizer (which will "helpfully" allow you to try and restore older versions, which will then return an error partially through the restore), as well as iTunes when specifying a custom file to restore with. Because of that restriction, I'm not sure how any other version can be supported: you have iOS 3.1 on an original iPhone, iOS 4.2 that an iPhone 3G can restore to, and iOS 4.3 on the current models. But other iOS versions don't have devices that can be restored to them. Do you just test in the simulator? Try and keep a device with the older version around, and hope it never needs to be replaced or restored if something goes wrong? I'm just not sure how something like that is managed. (Note: there is a way around the above restriction, namely, saving Apple's "okay, you can restore to this version" response (often called a SHSH hash) when Apple is currently allowing that device to be restored to a certain version, and then spoofing that same reply later when you want to restore. That's how TinyUmbrella[1] and Cydia's TSS service[2] work, but it's (of course) not supported and won't even be possible as of iOS 5.) [1]: http://thefirmwareumbrella.blogspot.com/ http://thefirmwareumbrella.blogspot.com/ [2]: http://www.saurik.com/id/12 http://www.saurik.com/id/12
- i300 15y agoI'd like to know how other developers go about supporting older firmwares. I, personally, have an iOS 4.3.3 iPad and iOS 3.1 iPod Touch Gen 2. I develop for those devices and make sure the application works on them both.
- gte910h 15y agoThe cheapest way was to just keep old phones, etc around. I have a 3.1.2 phone, 4.0 iPod touch that can't do multi tasking, and use them when I have to test edge cases. I don't think it's reasonable to care about <3.1.2 on the phone shaped devices, or <4.0 on iPads
- gte910h 15y agoThey've put a chunk of new app features into the API recently. 4.2 especially had great stuff. Also, the 4.0 style animation is so much easier and less error prone, customers demanding <4.0 compatibility make me cry a bit.
- mtogo 15y agoThe problem is that Apple somehow thinks their updates are worth charging for. If someone has to update from 3.x to 4.x, the price of your app just went from $.99 to $10.99.
- gte910h 15y agoAhh, you mean iPodTouch updates. Phone and iPad updates are free.
- mtogo 15y agoWow, really? I wonder why people don't update then.
- alexobenauer 15y agoAt WWDC, it came out that half of all iPhone owners have never plugged their device back in to their computers after initial set up. In fact, after I got my iPhone, my entire family fallowed suit, and none of them (literally 0 out of 5 people) sync their device, update it, anything. It just not something that they know to care about. Too much of a nuisance, not enough gain. Wireless updates (announced for iOS 5) should definitely help though.
- gte910h 15y agoSync is the big deal. Sync sucks.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- clemesha 15y agoCan anyone give the main differences between 3.x and 4.x? E.g. what features and/or improvements make it so apps like Foursquare require 4.0?
- marcf 15y agoI'm pretty sure the big one from a developer's perspective was background tasks.
- DrJokepu 15y agoHere's Apple's list: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#releasenotes/General/WhatsNewIniPhoneOS/Articles/iPhoneOS4.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009559-SW1 https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#releasenotes/Genera...
- natesm 15y agoBlocks. Although I'm not sure what would happen if you compiled the appropriate parts of http://compiler-rt.llvm.org/ http://compiler-rt.llvm.org/ into a 3.x application.
- frankus 15y agoYou can use a project called PLBlocks. I've successfully submitted to the App Store with it.
- BenSS 15y agoI'm expecting iOS4 to win out simply because that's the lowest iOS available for the iPod Touch 2nd gen! There's a lot of the devices out, and they're cheap but still useable. Especially significant for kid apps.
- donmcc 15y agoWe currently target 3.0 and later, but we will probably move to 4.0+ later this year for all new and updated apps. Our analytics is showing that the bulk of our users are on 4.0, in line with what Bump and others are seeing.
- saurik 15y agoI actively test down to iOS 2.2 and know that my newly released updates continue to work in the field on 2.1 (due to reports from successful installations by users). (I attempt to maintain compatibility with 2.0, but believe I made a mistake with Cydia 1.1.1: Cydia 1.1.2 should fix this.) That said, I do intend to start requiring iOS 3.1 going forward, due to the drastically decreased user community on 2.x and a killer feature that Apple added in iOS 3.1 (one of the few features added that would ever make me consider this): objc_setAssociatedObject().
- frou_dh 15y agoOn the Build and Analyze podcast, I remember Marco Arment saying something like 3G users will all have to buy new phones in the not distant future because their batteries will have crapped out due to age. Struck me as a wasteful mindset. When my battery goes, I'll buy and fit a new one from eBay. The phone itself is still fine.
- kaichanvong 15y agoI'm going to stick my neck out and say you're probably in the minority vs. number of people not willing to do this due to time/knowledge.