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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

by 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?

by bonaldi 13y ago

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?