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iOS 9: iPhone 4S will receive it?
- Thread starter AGX
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I think 60% is a bold number, I doubt it's as high as that nowadays.
Define "fair" though? Is it fair that users of newer devices have bloated versions of iOS because of legacy support? I don't think any iPad 2 user can claim they've been treated "unfairly" if their tablet is dropped from iOS 9.
iPad 2 has had a good run, it shipped with iOS 4.3 so has enjoyed five versions of iOS (4 through 8), that's amazing support but the cord has to be cut sometime.
Again, I don't see it happening because my own selfish needs and wishes are hardly going to be what Jony Ive wants. I was just thinking out loud, that perhaps the time has come to drop a load of legacy support and take the foundations of iOS 7 and 8 and make them perform at their best with iOS 9 on newer hardware.
Apple to their credit put themselves in this situation. They could've dropped the iPad 2 when the iPad 4 was released and dropped the Mini this year when the Mini 3 was introduced. What they should have done was sell the most current and the previous model. They chose not too so now there are some customers who want them to support their devices. I can't blame them but with Apples recent software QC, be careful what you ask for.
7.1.2 is the EOL version, and it came out only two months before iOS 8.0 became available.
7.1 was noticeably more stable than 7.0 even from the first beta in November 2013, 7.1.1 and 7.1.2 didn't really make a difference. Meanwhile we have 8.2 Beta 5 and 8.3 Beta 2 with nothing noteworthy besides new emojis and Apple Watch support. You can tell even from now, there won't be a big difference until at least 8.4 (if they even release one) or 8.3 if they change it a lot from now to release.
iOS 9 is probably where any real fixes are going.
You're commenting on 8.2 and 8.3. Yet, these iOS versions aren't even final. And we're still months away from any EOL version from which people can more definitively write the final reviews on iOS 8. Are you drawing these conclusions from first hand experience as a developer using a beta version, or from someone else's postings?
My experiences with concurrent versions of iOS 7 and 8 are very different from yours. On my 5s, iOS 7.0 was much less stable than 8.0. App crashes, resprings, and the white screen of death were all regular occurrences until about version 7.0.4. Even with the issues with iOS 8.0, the app crashes did not occur nearly as frequently, and with all versions of iOS 8 I've had exactly one respring occurrence.
And at this juncture with iOS 8.1.3, I already find it at least as stable and fast as 7.1.2. And 8.1.3 is not the EOL version that will in theory be the most stable version.
For that reason, and the fact that the A5 was a comparatively big step up from previous models, I think it's at least possible we'll see them get iOS 9.
Because some people probably view legacy hardware support as a hindrance for newer devices. And if the newer OS versions perform poorly on older hardware anyway, then it just takes longer to scan through the Macrumors threads because of all the complaints about how slowly iOS 9 runs on an iPhone 4s.
Doesn't matter to me, because I tend to keep my older devices on older versions of iOS unless I need the OS update to use certain apps. It's why I've kept my iPad 3 on iOS 6 and my daughter's iPad mini on iOS 7.
I have run iOS 8 betas on my iPhone 4s, the main problem with 7.0 was instability while with 8 it's just general performance. I keep hearing that there are improvements but when I put it on the 4s there is no noticeable difference since 8.1.1, and even that was a small difference.
And of course you don't notice the issues with your iPhone 5s, it's more of an issue for the 6 Plus and older devices.
60 percent is about the numeber. Varies between 55 and 60 percent depending on which site you look at. This is from 3 different statistics firms, and also the data from an app developer.
Newer devices are not bloated due to the old device support - Apple builds targeted iOS builds, and iOS 7 and 8 have had new code for 64 bit devices. Even if currently there is some code crossover, Apple can remove that with iOS 9 if they wanted to. Make a 32 bit and 64 bit. If they focus on performance as rumoured, there is no reason why.
The iPad Mini 1 and iPod Touch 5 is where I'm talking about fair. It would not be fair to loose device support with in 6 months of buying a product. It would not be fair then if the iPad Mini 1 gets supported and the iPad 2 doesn't as they are the same product with a different enclosure(bar bluetooth).
The time hasn't come to drop devices that are still for sale. Perhaps for once they could do something nice for customers who hand over huge sums of money for devices such as the iPad 2 which was still for sale only a year ago, and the iPad Mini 1.
I agree the cord has to be cut. But if they're in a situation where iOS 9 is mainly a performance and bug fix update, and they are still selling identical hardware, it is a good time to advantage to users and allow for a better transition to 64 bit.
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YES! This.
Its great everyone else can afford nice new iPads every year or 2 years, but not everyone is like that.
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Exactly. The iPad 2 should have ceased sales in about mid 2013. It actually sold in similar numbers to both the iPad 3 and 4 I believe in 2012 and 2013, which is why you still have more iPad users on the iPad 2 than any other iPad.
Same with the Mini 1, they sold More Mini 1s then Mini 2 or 3s (separate not combined) last quarter...
The A5 should have been dropped a while back, but Apple was greedy and continues selling them. Its actually not bad if you are an A5 user yourself, as it has brought about long support periods.
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7.1.0 was very stable. Immediate speed improvements were noticeable, and it came out in March.
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8.2 is close to being final and there is no speed improvement, and many bugs not fixed. 8.3 is in its second beta and there are minimal little speed improvements. Beta 1 of iOS 7.1 was immediately faster and more stable.
8.1.3 is a mess even on A7 devices, with lag and instability every where.
Hmm the 5S was a bit of a widespread issue, I think iOS 7 for 64 bit was not ready for prime time.
For me 7.0 was more stable on my iPhone 4 than 8.0- 8.1.0 were on my iPhone 5. 8.1.1 and 8.1.3 improved things a little but not by much.
If this old article is accurate then the iPhone 4s may get iOS 9: http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/15/fiksu-finds-more-evidence-of-ios-9-testing-underway/
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I saw that - they detected it on the 4S. If the 4S gets it, then all A5 devices should get it. The 4S is one of the slowest A5 devices ( tied with the iPod Touch 5)
Yes I agree that all A5 devices should get it. But, remember, it's Apple we are talking about here. They think about money more than customers. Only if they get bad press then they will change things. Because of money.
Because ipod touch 3rd gen (faster) is stuck on iOS 5.
But iPhone 3gs (slower) did get update to iOS 6.
"Internally, the 32 GB and 64 GB configurations of the iPod touch 3rd Gen and the iPhone 3GS have quite a bit in common. Both are believed to be powered by a Samsung ARM Cortex A8 processor running at 800 MHz (but the iPhone 3GS is "downclocked" to 600 MHz to conserve battery life) and both have PowerVR SGX graphics processors that support OpenGL ES 2.0 as well as 256 MB of RAM."
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/iphone/iphone-faq/differences-between-iphone-3gs-ipod-touch-3g-late-2009.html
I beg to differ. Even though the 4S and the iPod Touch 5 share most internals, the 4S feels a lot better from my perspectvive.
The 4S and iPod Touch 5 should feel identical as they almost are identical. My point was that they are the two slowest A5 devices - they benchmark under all the others.
They are both 800MHZ dual A5 with 512 MB of ram.
The iPad 2 and iPad Mini 1 are 1 GHZ dual A5 with 512 MB of ram.
I'm not quite sure if the graphics processors in the 4S and the iPad 2 differ - they seem to be the same type, but the 4S could be under clocked.
Usually GPU speed is correlated with CPU speed for SOC, if its in anyway similar to older android devices which I assume since the A5 isn't a 'fully' custom SOC in the way the A6+ are. Also the iPhone 4s should actually feel a bit faster, if noticeable, since it has less pixels to push compared to the iPod Touch 5, one of the reasons the iPads have 1GHz speeds compared to 800 MHz of the iPod and iPhone (other being able to dissipate more heat to the size and larger battery component).
Good point on the more pixels thing - I assume this would mean that there is slightly less free Ram on the iPod touch 5 as the graphics would take up more ram to push those extra pixels. Though how noticeable this is would be interesting.
what about the iPad 2 and iPad mini vs the 4S and touch 5 in terms of pixels- does the smaller retina screen take more power to push or does the larger non retina screen take more?
Simply having more pixels would mean using more power. The iPad mini and iPad 2 have a 1024*768 display vs the 960*640 or 1136*640 both which are considerably less compared to the iPads. 'retina' is simply a term that Apple made but with both science and logic behind it. The iPad 2 has to run 172,032 more pixels than the iPhone 4s or 59,392 more pixels than the iPod Touch 5. Same reason why the iPhone 4s feels considerably faster than the retina iPad 3 despite having a vastly superior A5X. The quad core GPU found on the A5X simply can't handle the 3,145,728 pixels. This is the same GPU running on the PS Vita running at 960*544 which is lower than the iPhone 4s (though not by much).
Normally, considering the way Apple has done things in the past, I would say no. The last update for the 3GS was iOS6, the last update for the 4 was iOS7 and the last update for the 4S will likely be iOS8. However, if rumors are true and iOS9 is focused on performance, it could be made available for the 4S, unless they want to lock those users out and force them to upgrade. It's sales vs "serving the customer" and most of the time sales are what matters. We'll see...
also dont forget that even the screen sizes of those A5 Devices can come to play. this being why the iPad Mini 1 gives more performance than the iPad 2
Uhhh what, the iPad mini and iPad 2 have the same resolution, screen size does not dictate performance. That's like saying a 80 inch 1080p TV will be slower to output to than a 23 inch 1080p TV which isn't.
Are you referring to the fairly unrelated announcements about the new MacBook and Apple Watch? They could still drop some or all of them at some other point, and they can still decide to release iOS 9 and not have it include any or all of those devices.
Seems strange not to use the event to either introduce updated models, or quietly get rid of them- maybe if we were talking about one device, but not all three. The iPad Mini 1 is still a big seller so discontinuing support for it past this point would be a poor move. Not saying it won't happen, though.