iOS 9 performance on iPad 4 & planned Obsolescence

[c00lius]

Hi,
iOS 9 has been released and I am cautious about upgrading my iPad 4. It shipped with iOS 6, and iOS 8 is already a bit slower and laggier. What is your experience with the newest update for ipad 4? Would you recommend upgrading or is it already obsolete?

My bigger Question:
Do you think apple makes iOS updates slow on purpose? I find it a bit suspicious that exactly after two major updates (two years) the third update makes the device sluggish, and that is the last update it gets. This definitely happens with all recent iPhones:

The iPhone 4 shipped with iOS 4 and started lagging extremely under iOS 7

The iPhone 4S shipped with iOS 5 and started lagging extremely under iOS 8

The iPhone 3G shipped with iOS 2 and started lagging under iOS 4 already, probably because it really had a bad processor.

It can't be a coincidence that after exactly 3 major updates, the devixe starts acting sluggish! After iOS 5, the most big changes were UI, nothing really big changed that could affect performance, and why would the performance worsen so regularly?

 

[C DM]

The UI change is one of the things that actually impacted things quite a bit, since a lot of new and additional transitional elements were added, on top of new transparencies and translucence that are around in many places and are thus used fairly often. That's in addition to iOS itself becoming more complex, as, for example, many under-the-hood additions in iOS 8 have shown.

 

[Zwhaler]

I upgraded iPad 4 and no major problems. Apps opened without lag. Opening folders had lag, and swiping down for the search feature was horrendously cringe. Other than that it basically performs as expected. I'd say if you aren't upgrading for a particular feature then just leave it. I updated for no such reason, and I don't regret it, but the previous OS will invariably perform better.

 

[c00lius]

The UI change is one of the things that actually impacted things quite a bit, since a lot of new and additional transitional elements were added, on top of new transparencies and translucence that are around in many places and are thus used fairly often. That's in addition to iOS itself becoming more complex, as, for example, many under-the-hood additions in iOS 8 have shown.

But does that really explain the regularity of the performance decrease? And, under the hood improvements should make something better, why would they make soctware more complex without any obvious improvements that only result in a decrease of performancy? IMO Apple is definitely using planned obsolescence. The fact that they desperately prevent downgrading your iOS to make it faster again shows that they force you to buy more of their products.

Just so you know, I love apple products (own several macs and ios devices), but I do not approve at all of that marketing strategy! (And many other phone companies do the same thing, I've seen samsung devices getting sluggish after some time)

 

[RebornProphet]

But does that really explain the regularity of the performance decrease? And, under the hood improvements should make something better, why would they make soctware more complex without any obvious improvements that only result in a decrease of performancy? IMO Apple is definitely using planned obsolescence. The fact that they desperately prevent downgrading your iOS to make it faster again shows that they force you to buy more of their products.

Just so you know, I love apple products (own several macs and ios devices), but I do not approve at all of that marketing strategy! (And many other phone companies do the same thing, I've seen samsung devices getting sluggish after some time)

The fact there are zero visible changes to the OS, in terms of graphics and effects, other than a new font means that the UI performance should be the same. A change to the app switcher and a new Siri UI should not introduce lag as iOS goes from 7 to 8 to 9.

The fact it does hints at obsolescence.

 

[C DM]

The fact there are zero visible changes to the OS, in terms of graphics and effects, other than a new font means that the UI performance should be the same. A change to the app switcher and a new Siri UI should not introduce lag as iOS goes from 7 to 8 to 9.

The fact it does hints at obsolescence.

Could there be underlying code changes that are used for various UI effects that have been updated and modified and on their own or combination with some other non-visible changes affect how various things are done? Just because there isn't something visible that is different doesn't mean that the existing visible things are done the same way that they have been before.

 

[Armen]

But does that really explain the regularity of the performance decrease? And, under the hood improvements should make something better, why would they make soctware more complex without any obvious improvements that only result in a decrease of performancy? IMO Apple is definitely using planned obsolescence. The fact that they desperately prevent downgrading your iOS to make it faster again shows that they force you to buy more of their products.

Just so you know, I love apple products (own several macs and ios devices), but I do not approve at all of that marketing strategy! (And many other phone companies do the same thing, I've seen samsung devices getting sluggish after some time)

"under the hood improvements should make something better, why would they make soctware more complex without any obvious improvements " -

Why are you under the impression that new software should run fine on old hardware? If that's the case we wouldn't see any new features because older hardware would always limit what can be done.

Apple is in a position in which if they limit new iOS releases only to devices 1 or 2 years old then everyone with a 3 year old device would cry planned obsolescence. They include a 3rd year device and people cry obsolescence anyway because it's "not as fast".


"The fact that they desperately prevent downgrading your iOS to make it faster again shows that they force you to buy more of their products." -

Apple prevents downgrading so they and 3rd party developers are not forced to support 3 different versions of the operating system at any given point. Example: Yahoo Mail and Skype do not work on iOS 6. You have to be on iOS 7 minimum.

 

[T5BRICK]

Do you think apple makes iOS updates slow on purpose?

No. Apple introduces new functionality every year. These new features are additional tasks that the hardware in your 3 year old iPad has to handle. If you don't want to slow your iPad down with newer, more functional versions of the OS, then don't update it.

 

[Woodcrest64]

Just found this thread and was wondering about how the iPad 4 holds up with iOS 9. Its interesting because my sister's iPad 2 that still runs iOS 4, yes iOS 4, and it runs the OS great, but not surfing the internet. If Apple never updated the operating system, websites and the complexity of them will inevitably slow the device down.

 

[Michael Goff]

The fact there are zero visible changes to the OS, in terms of graphics and effects, other than a new font means that the UI performance should be the same. A change to the app switcher and a new Siri UI should not introduce lag as iOS goes from 7 to 8 to 9.

The fact it does hints at obsolescence.

I'm guessing there were under the hood changes that did this. Some people are complaining about issues with the iPad Pro in terms of smoothness. Do you think they're making the iPad Pro obsolete as soon as it's released?

 

[I7guy]

I'm guessing there were under the hood changes that did this. Some people are complaining about issues with the iPad Pro in terms of smoothness. Do you think they're making the iPad Pro obsolete as soon as it's released?

Isn't that obviously the case; iPad pro 2 is about to be released.

 

[Radon87000]

I'm guessing there were under the hood changes that did this. Some people are complaining about issues with the iPad Pro in terms of smoothness. Do you think they're making the iPad Pro obsolete as soon as it's released?

Those are small time lags which will be ironed out.Those are the true bugs.The horrible lag on my Air 2 is not a bug.Open wishlist in App Store on Air 2 and tap on the homescreen.There is a stutter.On the iPad Pro its 60 FPS smooth (I checked).Its intentionally done to force users to migrate to iPad Pro.Its really easy to detect Apple's strategy.If you observe the lag on Android,its almost sporadic in nature.For instance,in the widgets screen there is always a stutter on any Android device I use but when I open it the second time its gone.THIS is a bug.With Apple,I can reproduce this same lag countless times again and again in the SAME spots.THAT is intentional

 

[Radon87000]

Isn't that obviously the case; iPad pro 2 is about to be released.

NO.Those are the real bugs which Apple will fix

 

[I7guy]

Those are small time lags which will be ironed out.Those are the true bugs.The horrible lag on my Air 2 is not a bug.Open wishlist in App Store on Air 2 and tap on the homescreen.There is a stutter.On the iPad Pro its 60 FPS smooth (I checked).Its intentionally done to force users to migrate to iPad Pro.Its really easy to detect Apple's strategy.If you observe the lag on Android,its almost sporadic in nature.For instance,in the widgets screen there is always a stutter on any Android device I use but when I open it the second time its gone.THIS is a bug.With Apple,I can reproduce this same lag countless times again and again in the SAME spots.THAT is intentional

Well we'll see. There is another Apple lawsuit filed in NY accusing Apple of planned obsolescence. The last suit in 2011 was tossed; so the courts don't think that's Apple strategy.

And if you really think deep down that's apples strategy; hit em where it hurts, in the pocketbook.

 

[Radon87000]

Well we'll see. There is another Apple lawsuit filed in NY accusing Apple of planned obsolescence. The last suit in 2011 was tossed; so the courts don't think that's Apple strategy.

And if you really think deep down that's apples strategy; hit em where it hurts, in the pocketbook.

I am pretty sure Apple will win that case because Apple has the US Courts in their pockets which is why there have been many cases where they unfairly win over Samsung.In the UK and other countries things are more fair.

In any case it proves my point that people have begun to notice planned obsolescence and Apple can only get away for so long

 

[I7guy]

I am pretty sure Apple will win that case because Apple has the US Courts in their pockets which is why there have been many cases where they unfairly win over Samsung.In the UK and other countries things are more fair.

In any case it proves my point that people have begun to notice planned obsolescence and Apple can only get away for so long

So if you think Apple has the US court system in its pocket, you are far afield. Repeating anything enough times doesn't make it true, it makes it repetitive.

 

[stulaw11]

This whole premise has been beat to death. While there is some planned obsolescence, you're talking about 2-3 year old devices.

Apple, nor any OS maker, has ANY duty to you to support it beyond it's life cycle; typically when a new model comes out. Doing so is a courtesy not a duty.

Most of OPs examples are 3 year old devices vs the OS. "Supported" devices DOES NOT mean optimized, nor should Apple be expected to waste it's time optimizing for a 3 year old obsolete device.

Shocking that a new OS optimized for the newest hardware is sluggish on 3 year old hardware. Who woulda thunk it? This whole premise/argument is just so ridiculous and self-centered to begin with instead of seeing the big picture. But I guess we do live in the era of entitlement.

 

[Michael Goff]

Those are small time lags which will be ironed out.Those are the true bugs.The horrible lag on my Air 2 is not a bug.Open wishlist in App Store on Air 2 and tap on the homescreen.There is a stutter.On the iPad Pro its 60 FPS smooth (I checked).Its intentionally done to force users to migrate to iPad Pro.Its really easy to detect Apple's strategy.If you observe the lag on Android,its almost sporadic in nature.For instance,in the widgets screen there is always a stutter on any Android device I use but when I open it the second time its gone.THIS is a bug.With Apple,I can reproduce this same lag countless times again and again in the SAME spots.THAT is intentional

What do they have to gain by making their still selling device work bad? They're nto going to be able to convince even half of Air 2 owners to move to a Pro because of price. Seriously , it makes no sense. Also, being able to reproduce a bug doesn't make it intentional.

 

[zioxide]

Those are small time lags which will be ironed out.Those are the true bugs.The horrible lag on my Air 2 is not a bug.Open wishlist in App Store on Air 2 and tap on the homescreen.There is a stutter.On the iPad Pro its 60 FPS smooth (I checked).Its intentionally done to force users to migrate to iPad Pro.Its really easy to detect Apple's strategy.If you observe the lag on Android,its almost sporadic in nature.For instance,in the widgets screen there is always a stutter on any Android device I use but when I open it the second time its gone.THIS is a bug.With Apple,I can reproduce this same lag countless times again and again in the SAME spots.THAT is intentional

So, a newer device with a faster processor and more memory does the same task faster than an older device with a slower processor and less memory? That's always going to happen. It's not "planned obsolescence", it's reality. Newer, more complex operating systems will run slower on older devices.

Only allowing devices to update software for three releases might seem like it's planned obsolescence, but they aren't "slowing the OS down" to force you to upgrade the hardware. Each additional version they continue to support adds much more work for their development team in maintaining security updates, and it creates a more fragmented market for 3rd party developers and makes it more difficult for them to do their jobs as well. It's a business decision to provide the most effective support and resources to the biggest portion of their user base, not to screw people over and force them to upgrade. The old devices still work fine, you just can't expect the latest and greatest features on performance on a 3+ year old device.

Well we'll see. There is another Apple lawsuit filed in NY accusing Apple of planned obsolescence. The last suit in 2011 was tossed; so the courts don't think that's Apple strategy.

This lawsuit will be tossed as well as it's brought by a few whiners who don't understand anything about software development.