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How many major software updates before iPhones begin to slow down?
- Thread starter Math889
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That used to be the case sure, but as phones become exponentially faster it becomes less and less noticeable for basic functionality. For example iOS 10 on iPhone 5 is far, far better than a 4S on iOS 9
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Yes, IOS 10'on iPhone 5 is far better than a 4S on iOS 9. This phone aged very well. I hope Apple continues that trend. The only Break point for iPhone 5 is the 32 bit processor . And I think that will be a reason for Apple not to updating it anymore .
Now what about the iPhone 5S ? How many iOS versions will get ?
I have a feeling it will still cap at 5 but as each successive generation reaches that cap it will get faster. What I mean (in terms of speed) is
iOS9 on 4S < iOS 10 on 5 < iOS 11 on 5S < iOS 12 on 6, but looking at that graph I think 6+ will suffer the most of all of them as it was underpowered from the get go.
Like you said, the break point for 5 will be 32bit and I believe the break point for 5S and 6 will be the 1GB RAM. After that, who knows.
I think the iPhone 5S will get two more iOS versions.
Apple usually gives an extra IOS update for S iPhones .Basically, the iPhone 5S will be able to run iOS 12 .Now the iPhone 6 will stop on iOS 13. Like you said the breakpoint for IPhone 5S, iPhone 6 will be the RAM.
Historically
iPhone 3G- IOS 4
iPhone 3GS -iOS 6
iPhone 4- iOS 7
iPhone 4S-IOS 9
iPhone 5- iOS 10
iPhone 5S -IOS 12?
In my opinion the trend of adding an extra iOS version to S models will eventually stop. I don't expect apple to release iOS 15 for the iPhone 6s that launched with iOS 9. The phone would be 6 years old at that point.
Neither did I. But the trend has to stop eventually, with the i5s, 6s or even 7s, but it just can't last forever.
Well, I know for a fact that phones are not getting "exponentially" faster. Exponentially faster would mean you start off with say, Iphone 1 @ 20Mhz, then Iphone 2 @ 200 Mhz and Iphone 3 @ 2 Ghz. That's not true.
Not quite. Whilst I don't think the performance increase rate shown in that graph is exponential, or at least not steadily, exponential growth doesn't have to work in quite the extreme way you suggest. The growth rate for each iteration in your example is a huge 1000%, something Apple has never claimed, and not necessary for exponential growth.
The growth rate could be, say, 50%.
20, 30, 45, 67.5
Or 100%
20, 40, 80, 160
Both would be exponential.
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I think when you use technical terms, it's important to understand it's meaning so as to prevent misuse. Please check the definition of "Exponential" growth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponential_growth
So what you've stated, is linear not exponential. So yes, that is a requirement for exponential growth, and precisely why no-one has claimed such numbers.
Lol mate, I am using the technical term.
The examples I gave are exponential.
The first one the growth rate is 50%. Each generation is 50% more than the last.
Here's the formula with the exponent, which shows you why it's called exponential.
Iteration 0 = 20
Iteration x = Iteration 0 * 1.5^x
Iteration 1 = 20 * 1.5^1 = 30
Iteration 2 = 20 * 1.5^2 = 45
Iteration 3 = 20 * 1.5^3 = 67.5
If it was linear, the progression might like something like:
20, 30, 40, 50.
Where the increase is a flat 10 each time and not a percentage of the previous value.
The example you have was
20, 200, 2000
Yes, that is exponential, but with a huge growth of 10x each iteration. I was merely saying that you can have smaller growth factors and it will still be exponential.
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