5 ms·

Apple has actually been doing really well on the software side of this iOS9 will support the iPhone 4S (released in 2011) through to the upcoming 6s. That's 5 g

by kenrikm 11y ago

Apple has actually been doing really well on the software side of this iOS9 will support the iPhone 4S (released in 2011) through to the upcoming 6s. That's 5 generations of devices that will be on the latest version of the OS. To put it into perspective, how many other cell phones out there are able to run the latest version of the OS 5 years after their release date?

hn9780470248775 11y ago
How many other ~$1000 devices are obsolete after four years?
- DannoHung 11y ago
  Well, a lot of computers cost about $1000 and the depreciation schedule for computers is 5 years. Since iOS 10 won't come out until 2016 at the earliest... All computers?
  - Silhouette 11y ago
    That's just because an accountant somewhere decided 5 years was a reasonable average time to write down the value of the PC as an economic asset. Given both the chances of hardware failures and general accounting practices, that probably wasn't unreasonable at the time. But it doesn't mean that the value of a 5-year-old PC has suddenly become zero to a user if it's still working fine.
- qq66 11y ago
  Electronic devices don't get "obsolete" as much as they get better so fast that the old device seems lame in comparison. A four-year-old PC is as fast as when it was new, but modern PCs are 10 times as powerful for the same price, so the old PC seems obsolete. My 9-year-old Canon 5D camera takes incredibly good photos, but the modern cameras are so insane (shoot a full movie in moonlight) that the 5D seems like an amateur in comparison. An iPhone 4S is a great phone compared to everything except newer phones.
  - ewzimm 11y ago
    I have a 10-year-old Athlon 64 x2 desktop which doesn't seem obsolete at all. It's about the same speed as the docked Atom tablet from last year I am using right now as my regular workstation. It even runs most modern games pretty well. So I've lost a lot of weight over the years, gained a little speed, and lost a lot of GPU power. With the expansion of cloud computing and the stagnation of desktop software, I will probably be able to use that desktop for another 10 years unless the hardware fails, but it's used rarely enough that I think it will last. The 4S is another example of an older device that competes really well with modern hardware.
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    This seems to have slowed down considerably on the PC side, and mobile devices seems to rapidly be heading towards numeric increase for numeric increase sake.
  - tsotha 11y ago
    >Electronic devices don't get "obsolete" as much as they get better so fast that the old device seems lame in comparison. Which would be fine if the device still did what you want it to do. But in fact connected electronic devices do go obsolete as soon as vendors stop providing security updates.
    - cortesoft 11y ago
      I am a bit confused as to how they stop doing 'what you want it to do' when they stop getting security patches. Sure, they won't have the latest security, but you can still 'use' the device in every way you did before... they might be vulnerable, but they were vulnerable before and you still used it.
      - nsxwolf 11y ago
        Let's not forget about the reliance on services. My second generation Apple TV can no longer view YouTube because it will not be updated to Google's new authentication scheme. So I have a product that does less today than the day I bought it.
tbomb 11y ago
This is something that played a big role in me going from Android to iPhone. I was big into Android since the HTC G1, and just liked the feel of it over iOS. But if I wanted the latest release of android (without flashing the device, and usually compromising some feature) I had to buy a new phone, extend my contract, etc. I really like how Apple supports their past phones with updates for years after their release.
Silhouette 11y ago
That's 5 generations of devices that will be on the latest version of the OS. You might in theory be able to run it on an iPad of the same generation as well, but ask a few people who upgraded their iPad to iOS7 or above how well it worked afterwards and you'll hear plenty of complaints, particularly about performance being much worse on the older hardware.

by kenrikm 11y ago

hn9780470248775 11y ago

How many other ~$1000 devices are obsolete after four years?

DannoHung 11y ago
Well, a lot of computers cost about $1000 and the depreciation schedule for computers is 5 years. Since iOS 10 won't come out until 2016 at the earliest... All computers?
- Silhouette 11y ago
  That's just because an accountant somewhere decided 5 years was a reasonable average time to write down the value of the PC as an economic asset. Given both the chances of hardware failures and general accounting practices, that probably wasn't unreasonable at the time. But it doesn't mean that the value of a 5-year-old PC has suddenly become zero to a user if it's still working fine.
qq66 11y ago
Electronic devices don't get "obsolete" as much as they get better so fast that the old device seems lame in comparison. A four-year-old PC is as fast as when it was new, but modern PCs are 10 times as powerful for the same price, so the old PC seems obsolete. My 9-year-old Canon 5D camera takes incredibly good photos, but the modern cameras are so insane (shoot a full movie in moonlight) that the 5D seems like an amateur in comparison. An iPhone 4S is a great phone compared to everything except newer phones.
- ewzimm 11y ago
  I have a 10-year-old Athlon 64 x2 desktop which doesn't seem obsolete at all. It's about the same speed as the docked Atom tablet from last year I am using right now as my regular workstation. It even runs most modern games pretty well. So I've lost a lot of weight over the years, gained a little speed, and lost a lot of GPU power. With the expansion of cloud computing and the stagnation of desktop software, I will probably be able to use that desktop for another 10 years unless the hardware fails, but it's used rarely enough that I think it will last. The 4S is another example of an older device that competes really well with modern hardware.
- digi_owl 11y ago
  This seems to have slowed down considerably on the PC side, and mobile devices seems to rapidly be heading towards numeric increase for numeric increase sake.
- tsotha 11y ago
  >Electronic devices don't get "obsolete" as much as they get better so fast that the old device seems lame in comparison. Which would be fine if the device still did what you want it to do. But in fact connected electronic devices do go obsolete as soon as vendors stop providing security updates.
  - cortesoft 11y ago
    I am a bit confused as to how they stop doing 'what you want it to do' when they stop getting security patches. Sure, they won't have the latest security, but you can still 'use' the device in every way you did before... they might be vulnerable, but they were vulnerable before and you still used it.
    - nsxwolf 11y ago
      Let's not forget about the reliance on services. My second generation Apple TV can no longer view YouTube because it will not be updated to Google's new authentication scheme. So I have a product that does less today than the day I bought it.

tbomb 11y ago

This is something that played a big role in me going from Android to iPhone. I was big into Android since the HTC G1, and just liked the feel of it over iOS. But if I wanted the latest release of android (without flashing the device, and usually compromising some feature) I had to buy a new phone, extend my contract, etc. I really like how Apple supports their past phones with updates for years after their release.

Silhouette 11y ago

That's 5 generations of devices that will be on the latest version of the OS. You might in theory be able to run it on an iPad of the same generation as well, but ask a few people who upgraded their iPad to iOS7 or above how well it worked afterwards and you'll hear plenty of complaints, particularly about performance being much worse on the older hardware.