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One thing that discouraged me from tablets was how fast they went deprecated. I bought an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy Note around 2012. The Samsung Galaxy stopped

One thing that discouraged me from tablets was how fast they went deprecated. I bought an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy Note around 2012. The Samsung Galaxy stopped having updates about 2 years after I bought it, and the iPad, although it still runs, it stopped receiving updates around iOS 9 and its only current use is as PDF viewer (not even Kindle works in it). A Lenovo Thinkpad I bought from that same year is still up and running and very useful whenever I need it.

herrkanin 2y ago
The software support for iPads have been excellent imo, especially compared to competition. If you bought an iPad in 2012, it should have received software updates until 2019, and all iPads since 2015 are still supported. In general I expect the first 2-3 generations of a new product line to have shorter support cycle before they have matured a bit, so it doesn't surprise me that your particular iPad model only got 7 years, but if you buy an iPad today I would be surprised if it got less than 10+ years of support. All that said, I think hardware companies should be forced to open up their hardware for booting alternative OSes once they are classified as EOL.
- l72 2y ago
  I have an ipad air sitting in my drawer right now that I haven't been able to use in years. It stopped getting major updates and stayed on iOS 12. It continued to get bug fix updates for the next few years, but that isn't really helpful when all the apps stopped supporting iOS 12. No netflix, hulu, or HBO. I can't use it as a shopify terminal. Even if you are fine with an older version of these apps, these companies specifically disable their old apps, and make them stop working. So...my ipad, which still has great battery life, sits in a drawer, because no apps work on it anymore. And I get it, that isn't 100% apples fault, these companies and their developers are to blame too, but apple certainly encourages targeting the latest versions os iOS.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    The basic issue is that, say, 8 year old hardware is still pretty functional in a lot of cases but that’s probably near the support limit of even fairly long-term OS and app support. I’m mostly ok on a couple Macs because I really only use them as browsers anyway. But with iPads and iPhones they really become useless without updates after a while. I’ve been using an iPhone X as a spare phone for travel but it finally stopped charging and I see it’s out of support so not worth fixing.
    - fauigerzigerk 2y ago
      >The basic issue is that, say, 8 year old hardware is still pretty functional in a lot of cases but that’s probably near the support limit of even fairly long-term OS and app support I's partly a consequence of forcing people to install so much software on these devices in the first place. Netflix is absolutely fine in the browser, as are 90% of all other apps. No need to create dependencies on a local OS, its oppressive rules and update cycles. I get the advantages of native apps on PC and Mac, especially open source apps, because it really gives you more control over the software you run. But on mobile, especially on iOS, you have no control anyway.
      - pohl 2y ago
        Re: “consequence of forcing people”, who is doing the “forcing” in your scenario and how is that force applied?
        fauigerzigerk 2y ago
        Netflix is doing the forcing. Banks are doing the forcing. There are many app categories with very little reason to exist at all, or at least not for creating dependencies on the latest client APIs. Edit: And it's not just that these apps are useless. In some cases they are inferior to the web app. E.g., the Netflix iPad app can't seem to remember where I left off. It misses entire episodes. And every evening when I try to resume watching, I'm getting an error message because the old network connection is broken. Everything that's good about Netflix happens on the server. The app is just a dumb terminal and it can't even serve that purpose properly.
  - massysett 2y ago
    All the Apple stuff that shipped with it still should work. Safari, Music, Maps, etc. That's a lot of useful stuff. I had an old iPod Touch that had stopped receiving updates years ago. Old third-party apps were a problem. But all the Apple-shipped stuff still worked - even stuff like Music and Maps, which required server-side support.
- pch00 2y ago
  > The software support for iPads have been excellent imo, especially compared to competition. Yes, excellent in comparison to the other "black rectangle" devices, phones, tablets, etc but compared to a regular PC still awful. My core 2 duo PC from ~16 years ago is still going strong. I think the difference is, with an "open" platform like the PC it's up to the user when they want to replace the hardware, usually when it's too slow to keep up with the things you want to do. But with these newer devices you're completely at the mercy of the manufacturer - at some point the power flipped and that's a shame.
blitzar 2y ago
Further to this, the general use case for a tablet - i.e. web browsing / streaming video / reading / email etc. is light and there is no reason that hardware that is a few years old is would not be sufficient.
siva7 2y ago
That was true for first-generation tablets but times have changed. I own an iPad Pro from 2017 and i couldn't tell the difference between a 2024 model on first sight. It still works perfectly fine for all general tablet use cases and receives all upgrades.
- tomgp 2y ago
  Yeah that mirrors my experience. I have a 2016 iPad pro which I use all the time and which doesn't show any signs of not meeting my needs any time soon. Probably the best value piece of computing hardware i've ever owned on a price per minute basis.
nytesky 2y ago
3 years for an iPad is very unusual? But I’ve bought new Galaxies that don’t get updates within 2 years. But I also have a Surface laptop bought in 2019 that won’t get updated after 2025. Sure I can run Linux but it was my wife’s machine, so that will go over like a ton of bricks.
paulcole 2y ago
Did you buy the iPad new in 2012? I find it hard to believe a new iPad stopped getting updates after 3 years. I’ve had 3 iPads (2009-2015, 2015-2020, and now 2020-present) and upgraded the first two before they stopped getting software updates.
alanbernstein 2y ago
I have the same problem with an old hand-me-down ipad. I still find lots of uses for it, because browsers still work. I create tiny utility web pages for viewing miscellaneous info. Somehow it's still useful.

herrkanin 2y ago

The software support for iPads have been excellent imo, especially compared to competition. If you bought an iPad in 2012, it should have received software updates until 2019, and all iPads since 2015 are still supported. In general I expect the first 2-3 generations of a new product line to have shorter support cycle before they have matured a bit, so it doesn't surprise me that your particular iPad model only got 7 years, but if you buy an iPad today I would be surprised if it got less than 10+ years of support. All that said, I think hardware companies should be forced to open up their hardware for booting alternative OSes once they are classified as EOL.

l72 2y ago
I have an ipad air sitting in my drawer right now that I haven't been able to use in years. It stopped getting major updates and stayed on iOS 12. It continued to get bug fix updates for the next few years, but that isn't really helpful when all the apps stopped supporting iOS 12. No netflix, hulu, or HBO. I can't use it as a shopify terminal. Even if you are fine with an older version of these apps, these companies specifically disable their old apps, and make them stop working. So...my ipad, which still has great battery life, sits in a drawer, because no apps work on it anymore. And I get it, that isn't 100% apples fault, these companies and their developers are to blame too, but apple certainly encourages targeting the latest versions os iOS.
- ghaff 2y ago
  The basic issue is that, say, 8 year old hardware is still pretty functional in a lot of cases but that’s probably near the support limit of even fairly long-term OS and app support. I’m mostly ok on a couple Macs because I really only use them as browsers anyway. But with iPads and iPhones they really become useless without updates after a while. I’ve been using an iPhone X as a spare phone for travel but it finally stopped charging and I see it’s out of support so not worth fixing.
  - fauigerzigerk 2y ago
    >The basic issue is that, say, 8 year old hardware is still pretty functional in a lot of cases but that’s probably near the support limit of even fairly long-term OS and app support I's partly a consequence of forcing people to install so much software on these devices in the first place. Netflix is absolutely fine in the browser, as are 90% of all other apps. No need to create dependencies on a local OS, its oppressive rules and update cycles. I get the advantages of native apps on PC and Mac, especially open source apps, because it really gives you more control over the software you run. But on mobile, especially on iOS, you have no control anyway.
    - pohl 2y ago
      Re: “consequence of forcing people”, who is doing the “forcing” in your scenario and how is that force applied?
      - fauigerzigerk 2y ago
        Netflix is doing the forcing. Banks are doing the forcing. There are many app categories with very little reason to exist at all, or at least not for creating dependencies on the latest client APIs. Edit: And it's not just that these apps are useless. In some cases they are inferior to the web app. E.g., the Netflix iPad app can't seem to remember where I left off. It misses entire episodes. And every evening when I try to resume watching, I'm getting an error message because the old network connection is broken. Everything that's good about Netflix happens on the server. The app is just a dumb terminal and it can't even serve that purpose properly.
- massysett 2y ago
  All the Apple stuff that shipped with it still should work. Safari, Music, Maps, etc. That's a lot of useful stuff. I had an old iPod Touch that had stopped receiving updates years ago. Old third-party apps were a problem. But all the Apple-shipped stuff still worked - even stuff like Music and Maps, which required server-side support.
pch00 2y ago
> The software support for iPads have been excellent imo, especially compared to competition. Yes, excellent in comparison to the other "black rectangle" devices, phones, tablets, etc but compared to a regular PC still awful. My core 2 duo PC from ~16 years ago is still going strong. I think the difference is, with an "open" platform like the PC it's up to the user when they want to replace the hardware, usually when it's too slow to keep up with the things you want to do. But with these newer devices you're completely at the mercy of the manufacturer - at some point the power flipped and that's a shame.

blitzar 2y ago

Further to this, the general use case for a tablet - i.e. web browsing / streaming video / reading / email etc. is light and there is no reason that hardware that is a few years old is would not be sufficient.

siva7 2y ago

That was true for first-generation tablets but times have changed. I own an iPad Pro from 2017 and i couldn't tell the difference between a 2024 model on first sight. It still works perfectly fine for all general tablet use cases and receives all upgrades.

tomgp 2y ago
Yeah that mirrors my experience. I have a 2016 iPad pro which I use all the time and which doesn't show any signs of not meeting my needs any time soon. Probably the best value piece of computing hardware i've ever owned on a price per minute basis.

nytesky 2y ago

3 years for an iPad is very unusual? But I’ve bought new Galaxies that don’t get updates within 2 years. But I also have a Surface laptop bought in 2019 that won’t get updated after 2025. Sure I can run Linux but it was my wife’s machine, so that will go over like a ton of bricks.

paulcole 2y ago

Did you buy the iPad new in 2012? I find it hard to believe a new iPad stopped getting updates after 3 years. I’ve had 3 iPads (2009-2015, 2015-2020, and now 2020-present) and upgraded the first two before they stopped getting software updates.

alanbernstein 2y ago

I have the same problem with an old hand-me-down ipad. I still find lots of uses for it, because browsers still work. I create tiny utility web pages for viewing miscellaneous info. Somehow it's still useful.