5 ms·

This is basically Apple themselves showing they don't trust everybody will like iOS7.

bonaldi 13y ago
It's less that and more that there is now a significant-enough installed base that can't upgrade to the latest OS. There's now a lot of older iPhones and iPods Touch out there that will never get 7. Knowing that, developers will become increasingly reluctant to leave those customers behind -- and so will keep building for 6 and earlier, and won't use the new 7-only stuff. This way, devs can immediately go to 7, knowing that customers stuck on older versions will not suddenly be unable to buy or (re)install their apps.
- mikeash 13y ago
  It's probably significant that the 3GS is not getting iOS 7. The original iPhone was fairly underpowered, and the iPhone 3G changed essentially nothing besides the case and the addition of 3G cellular data. The 3GS was the first real upgrade, the first iPhone with a decent camera, a decent amount of RAM, and a decent CPU. It ended up as the longest-lived iPhone model yet, starting out as the high-end model in 2009, then dropping down to a secondary model in 2010, and it was only discontinued with the release of the iPhone 5 in 2012. It was on the market for almost three years, and while sales no doubt dropped off after a while, it must have sold a ton of units. Prior to this, the only iOS devices that stopped receiving OS upgrades were the original iPhone and the 3G, the roughly corresponding iPod touch models, and the original iPad. The addition of the 3GS to the "no more OS upgrades" category probably vastly increases the set of people with devices that cannot be upgraded. In addition to the numbers, there's also timing. The last new 3GS was sold less than a year ago. To already lose OS updates is a blow to those users. So if I had to guess, a large part of this move is probably the 3GS, due to it suddenly contributing a large number of devices to the pool of those that the latest OS doesn't support, and due to it still being sold until relatively recently.
  - rahoulb 13y ago
    I'd say it's more likely to be iPod touches - only the newer touches are getting ios 7 and there's no contracts (and hence no "cheap" upgrades). Plus It's also quite likely to belong to a child. Anecdotally, I rarely see a 3GS any more.
    - mikeash 13y ago
      Could be. I haven't paid as much attention to the Touch. Either way, I think the overall general point is that iOS is hitting an inflection point where the number of devices not supported by the current OS is set to increase substantially.
- hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
  I'm one myself, since my 3GS still works. If iOS7 were any good in my opinion, I would feel compelled to upgrade to a 4 or 5 though, as already happened before for users of 3 and prior. This App Store change makes people like me even less compelled to upgrade, so this move is kinda unexpected coming from Apple, since it keeps the inertia.
  - melange 13y ago
    Have you tried iOS7 on an iPhone 5?
rickyc091 13y ago
I think it's also to alleviate the burden for developers to maintain two separate apps. iOS7 design conventions drastically differ from iOS6, so keeping both up to date within the same app will be a pain due to legacy code. If the backend doesn't change, this makes it easier to move forth with a new design.
objclxt 13y ago
I don't think so - I think it's more that Apple are strongly pushing developers to support iOS 7 only for newer apps. Apple are now suggesting developers should be using auto layout by default (which in iOS 7 saves considerable time), but until now the toolset for working with auto layout was woefully inadequate (...some might say it still is). It's a lot easier to sell supporting iOS 7 only if all the users who haven't - or can't - upgrade can since have access to older versions of your apps.
melange 13y ago
This is Apple themselves recognizing that hardware that is too old to run iOS7 is still useful.
- pdpi 13y ago
  Nah, this is because of the new 64 processors. There's still no mechanism that allows for 64 bit iOS7/32 bit iOS6 fat binaries, it's either 64 bits iOS7/32 bits iOS7, or iOS 6 only. Probably the first time that apps compiled for the latest and greatest can't run on old phones at all.
  - untog 13y ago
    Pretty sure it has zero to do with 64-bit processors. iOS7 is still going to be running on old 32-bit chips.
    - pdpi 13y ago
      Yes, which is precisely why you need 64-bit/32-bit fat binaries. Problem is that the current SDK can only generate 64-bit/32-bit fat binaries for iOS7 alone.
      - mikeash 13y ago
        You don't "need" fat binaries. You can just build for 32-bit and be happy. 64-bit is purely optional.
      - untog 13y ago
        Yes, which is precisely why you need 64-bit/32-bit fat binaries. I don't recall OSX refusing to run 32-bit binaries when it allowed 64bit computing.
        pdpi 13y ago
        You don't need the fat binary to make 32-bit work in 64-bit machines. You need it to make it so that you can take advantage of the 64-bit machine with a build that still works in a 32-bit machine.

It's less that and more that there is now a significant-enough installed base that can't upgrade to the latest OS. There's now a lot of older iPhones and iPods Touch out there that will never get 7. Knowing that, developers will become increasingly reluctant to leave those customers behind -- and so will keep building for 6 and earlier, and won't use the new 7-only stuff. This way, devs can immediately go to 7, knowing that customers stuck on older versions will not suddenly be unable to buy or (re)install their apps.

mikeash 13y ago
It's probably significant that the 3GS is not getting iOS 7. The original iPhone was fairly underpowered, and the iPhone 3G changed essentially nothing besides the case and the addition of 3G cellular data. The 3GS was the first real upgrade, the first iPhone with a decent camera, a decent amount of RAM, and a decent CPU. It ended up as the longest-lived iPhone model yet, starting out as the high-end model in 2009, then dropping down to a secondary model in 2010, and it was only discontinued with the release of the iPhone 5 in 2012. It was on the market for almost three years, and while sales no doubt dropped off after a while, it must have sold a ton of units. Prior to this, the only iOS devices that stopped receiving OS upgrades were the original iPhone and the 3G, the roughly corresponding iPod touch models, and the original iPad. The addition of the 3GS to the "no more OS upgrades" category probably vastly increases the set of people with devices that cannot be upgraded. In addition to the numbers, there's also timing. The last new 3GS was sold less than a year ago. To already lose OS updates is a blow to those users. So if I had to guess, a large part of this move is probably the 3GS, due to it suddenly contributing a large number of devices to the pool of those that the latest OS doesn't support, and due to it still being sold until relatively recently.
- rahoulb 13y ago
  I'd say it's more likely to be iPod touches - only the newer touches are getting ios 7 and there's no contracts (and hence no "cheap" upgrades). Plus It's also quite likely to belong to a child. Anecdotally, I rarely see a 3GS any more.
  - mikeash 13y ago
    Could be. I haven't paid as much attention to the Touch. Either way, I think the overall general point is that iOS is hitting an inflection point where the number of devices not supported by the current OS is set to increase substantially.
hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
I'm one myself, since my 3GS still works. If iOS7 were any good in my opinion, I would feel compelled to upgrade to a 4 or 5 though, as already happened before for users of 3 and prior. This App Store change makes people like me even less compelled to upgrade, so this move is kinda unexpected coming from Apple, since it keeps the inertia.
- melange 13y ago
  Have you tried iOS7 on an iPhone 5?

rickyc091 13y ago

I think it's also to alleviate the burden for developers to maintain two separate apps. iOS7 design conventions drastically differ from iOS6, so keeping both up to date within the same app will be a pain due to legacy code. If the backend doesn't change, this makes it easier to move forth with a new design.

objclxt 13y ago

I don't think so - I think it's more that Apple are strongly pushing developers to support iOS 7 only for newer apps. Apple are now suggesting developers should be using auto layout by default (which in iOS 7 saves considerable time), but until now the toolset for working with auto layout was woefully inadequate (...some might say it still is). It's a lot easier to sell supporting iOS 7 only if all the users who haven't - or can't - upgrade can since have access to older versions of your apps.

melange 13y ago

This is Apple themselves recognizing that hardware that is too old to run iOS7 is still useful.

pdpi 13y ago
Nah, this is because of the new 64 processors. There's still no mechanism that allows for 64 bit iOS7/32 bit iOS6 fat binaries, it's either 64 bits iOS7/32 bits iOS7, or iOS 6 only. Probably the first time that apps compiled for the latest and greatest can't run on old phones at all.
- untog 13y ago
  Pretty sure it has zero to do with 64-bit processors. iOS7 is still going to be running on old 32-bit chips.
  - pdpi 13y ago
    Yes, which is precisely why you need 64-bit/32-bit fat binaries. Problem is that the current SDK can only generate 64-bit/32-bit fat binaries for iOS7 alone.
    - mikeash 13y ago
      You don't "need" fat binaries. You can just build for 32-bit and be happy. 64-bit is purely optional.
    - untog 13y ago
      Yes, which is precisely why you need 64-bit/32-bit fat binaries. I don't recall OSX refusing to run 32-bit binaries when it allowed 64bit computing.
      - pdpi 13y ago
        You don't need the fat binary to make 32-bit work in 64-bit machines. You need it to make it so that you can take advantage of the 64-bit machine with a build that still works in a 32-bit machine.