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iPad 2 finally gets replaced "9.7 iPad Pro"

marine0816

marine0816

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2011
700
632
USA
After 5 years, planned obsolescence has finally run its course on my iPad 2. For the last couple of years the iPad 2 has been so sluggish. But all the updates didn't warrant a ($1300+(mine+wife's) investment, so I impatiently waited. When the BIG iPad Pro came out in late 2015, I took a peek but it was too big and for the price, a Surface Pro had more value.. When i finally heard they were making a 9.7 model with the same features, I jumped for joy..I only wish it was the standard $499 starting price and had 3D touch. But you cant have it all. So iPad pro 9.7, here I come.

PS: The reason why I'm on this site is because of the ipad 2, check out my seniority date on the left
 
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marine0816 said:
After 5 years, planned obsolescence has finally run its course on my iPad 2.
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Name any tablet or smartphone that hasn't undergone your definition of "planned obsolescence" in the past 5 years.

I think only the iPhone 4S comes close to still satisfying customers after so long. I'm continually amazed at how people manage to chug along with the iPad 2 even today.
 
My mom still uses an iPad 2. She also has an iPad 3 that she swaps between, but she still doesn't feel like she needs to upgrade. I think that's crazy how long it lasted for her...or, I should say, how long it's still lasting for her.
 
marine0816 said:
After 5 years, planned obsolescence has finally run its course on my iPad 2. For the last couple of years the iPad 2 has been so sluggish. But all the updates didn't warrant a ($1300+(mine+wife's) investment, so I impatiently waited. When the BIG iPad Pro came out in late 2015, I took a peek but it was too big and for the price, a Surface Pro had more value.. When i finally heard they were making a 9.7 model with the same features, I jumped for joy..I only wish it was the standard $499 starting price and had 3D touch. But you cant have it all. So iPad pro 9.7, here I come.

PS: The reason why I'm on this site is because of the ipad 2, check out my seniority date on the left
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Had you keep it on ios6 or 7, you'd been fine.

My ipad2 on ios7.1 runs just fine. And if this new model doesn't have 12 hrs battery life on it, I'll keep using it still.
 
bufffilm said:
Had you keep it on ios6 or 7, you'd been fine.

My ipad2 on ios7.1 runs just fine. And if this new model doesn't have 12 hrs battery life on it, I'll keep using it still.
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Yes the software updates really crippled (purposely) the iPad 2
 
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I'm still on my iPad 2.. might get this new iPad but might wait another year.
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bufffilm said:
My ipad2 on ios7.1 runs just fine. And if this new model doesn't have 12 hrs battery life on it, I'll keep using it still.
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I feel the same way. I can get 18 to 19 hours out of my iPad 2. Can't say the same about the Air 2.
 
Also still chugging along with an ipad2. Have almost upgraded to an air 2 several times. As the rumored new model got closer I decided to wait and see what it has to offer. After Monday, I'll decide which one to get.
 
emulator said:
You cannot downgrade to your shipped os. There is your "purpose"!
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That doesn't mean anything. Apple has supported the iPad 2 for 5 years so far. Why would they purposefully cripple a device they've supported for so long? It would make way more sense to just stop supporting it and let it slowly become incompatible with new apps.

Then people would complain about that. I don't normally defend Apple, but they just can't win with some people. Some people will complain no matter what Apple does.
 
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I too am still using a 64gb iPad 2 and am mostly satisfied. Some of the software updates were really bad but the most recent ones weren't too bad and I think corrected some of the sluggishness. It's been a good device that has served well but it is out of date. I feel bad though because there's nothing wrong with it. It's perfect in its condition so I am not sure what to do with it but I suppose I'll try to sell it for a bit of cash.

I plan to probably get the next-gen iPad Air, the so-called "Air 3" when it comes out in a few weeks. I hope I'm blown away by the speed. We'll see.

I've enjoyed, but am not obsessed with, my iPad 2. It only gets used about 2% of the time compared with my standard MacBook Air.
 
Channan said:
That doesn't mean anything. Apple has supported the iPad 2 for 5 years so far. Why would they purposefully cripple a device they've supported for so long? It would make way more sense to just stop supporting it and let it slowly become incompatible with new apps.

Then people would complain about that. I don't normally defend Apple, but they just can't win with some people. Some people will complain no matter what Apple does.
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Not entirely true. Nearly every time there is a major iOS release, some device gets left behind. There are virtually no complaints by owners of those devices... But there are numerous complaints by people who upgraded and had their devices drop in performance.

Don't believe me? Start a thread with poll asking iPad 2 owners if they would like the option to downgrade to a previous version of iOS. :p
 
sracer said:
Not entirely true. Nearly every time there is a major iOS release, some device gets left behind. There are virtually no complaints by owners of those devices... But there are numerous complaints by people who upgraded and had their devices drop in performance.

Don't believe me? Start a thread with poll asking iPad 2 owners if they would like the option to downgrade to a previous version of iOS. :p
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You aren't forced to update to a new OS, so it's better to have the option and choose to stay on an old version than not have an option at all. Everyone can have what they want that way.

dirtclod said:
I too am still using a 64gb iPad 2 and am mostly satisfied. Some of the software updates were really bad but the most recent ones weren't too bad and I think corrected some of the sluggishness. It's been a good device that has served well but it is out of date. I feel bad though because there's nothing wrong with it. It's perfect in its condition so I am not sure what to do with it but I suppose I'll try to sell it for a bit of cash.

I plan to probably get the next-gen iPad Air, the so-called "Air 3" when it comes out in a few weeks. I hope I'm blown away by the speed. We'll see.

I've enjoyed, but am not obsessed with, my iPad 2. It only gets used about 2% of the time compared with my standard MacBook Air.
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You would be blown away by the speed on the iPad Air 2 compared to the iPad 2, and the next iPad is only going to be better.
 
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I upgraded to the large Pro in december jumping straight from ipad2.

Yup, regular ios upgrades were compatible with ipad2 of course, but as mentioned, the resouces needed to make it run smooth werent there as much in ipad2. It just became more and more sluggish. Painfully so. If i could downgrade my ios i would, but i'd have to seriously consider to which version and to make sure i had some apps left i could download that are lower ios compatible still.

The jump from ipad2 to ipadpro was completely off the scale of course. It took me a time to upgrade due to waiting for the option of the 'perfect' ipad. Ipad2, at the time, really was an awesome bit of kit. The next viable option for me was ipadair2. But the regular screen was too small. Luckily rumours of the large pro had been flying around for a couple of years and it didnt take forever to materialise.
 
Channan said:
You aren't forced to update to a new OS, so it's better to have the option and choose to stay on an old version than not have an option at all. Everyone can have what they want that way.
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Actually you ARE forced to upgrade if you need to reinstall iOS your device. In addition, one cannot know if an upgrade will improve things or make things worse until they install it on their own device. A person can't go by the anecdotal evidence of forums like this. Depending upon apps being used and how the device is being used, results vary.

But you are not alone in your defense of Apple's practices in this regard.
 
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sracer said:
Actually you ARE forced to upgrade if you need to reinstall iOS your device. In addition, one cannot know if an upgrade will improve things or make things worse until they install it on their own device. A person can't go by the anecdotal evidence of forums like this. Depending upon apps being used and how the device is being used, results vary.

But you are not alone in your defense of Apple's practices in this regard.
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Absolutely. The decision to upgrade is a thought process best answered by savvy and knowledge. Which most of use dont have. We just upgrade per course.

If we knew before hand which ios to upgrade to or not for our older devices we'd be a lot better off, particulaly if we had the option to downgrade if we made the wrong choice.

My ipad2 is on ios8.x and is rotten to use. Ios 6 was peachy, even if the app choice was scant.
 
sracer said:
Actually you ARE forced to upgrade if you need to reinstall iOS your device. In addition, one cannot know if an upgrade will improve things or make things worse until they install it on their own device. A person can't go by the anecdotal evidence of forums like this. Depending upon apps being used and how the device is being used, results vary.
.
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Exactly right. Outside of the short signing window where you can downgrade back, you stay upgraded! There is no going back.

I use my ipad2 for web browsing, light email, reading e-books and comics, and some Internet radio (tunein radio/Pandora/Spotify)...all functions that iOS 6/7 services just fine. Even Netflix was supported when I was still a subscriber (and still is). And I was VPNing to work to manage servers/routers via rdp/ssh, but thankfully, I don't have to do that anymore.

Had more people kept their iPad 2 and 3 on these versions, they would been fine and able to use their devices still. It's a shame.

I don't do any secure banking, etc where I might be at risk with an older iOS. And that risk is negligible imo...not one virus or exploit has hit me in all these years.
 
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sracer said:
Actually you ARE forced to upgrade if you need to reinstall iOS your device. In addition, one cannot know if an upgrade will improve things or make things worse until they install it on their own device. A person can't go by the anecdotal evidence of forums like this. Depending upon apps being used and how the device is being used, results vary.

But you are not alone in your defense of Apple's practices in this regard.
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And there should rarely ever be a reason to reinstall the OS. I haven't had to once since I stopped jailbreaking over 5 years ago.
 
Channan said:
And there should rarely ever be a reason to reinstall the OS. I haven't had to once since I stopped jailbreaking over 5 years ago.
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iOS installs get slower and slower. I do a new install every 6 months to keep things from slowing to a crawl.
 
oldmacs said:
I'm still on my iPad 2.. might get this new iPad but might wait another year.
[doublepost=1458438194][/doublepost]

I feel the same way. I can get 18 to 19 hours out of my iPad 2. Can't say the same about the Air 2.
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You sound a lot like me. When reading a simple ebook (people still do that, don't they)...one doesn't need to turn on wifi/Bluetooth, so why does the Air2 perform so disappointingly?

In Apple's quest to shave 40-100 grams off the iPad each time...now, nearly five years since the iPad 2 debuted, the current iPad really hasn't fared much better in the battery life dept.

And Apple still wonders how can they get people to upgrade! If it wasn't so sad, I would laugh.

And I'm ready and willing to upgrade...would be nice to finally get a better screen. But not if the battery life hasn't improved by a decent margin.


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Channan said:
And there should rarely ever be a reason to reinstall the OS. I haven't had to once since I stopped jailbreaking over 5 years ago.
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Not so fast.

Suppose you want a new battery or maybe the screen cracked, or maybe some odd software problem that you bring in to a local store to diagnose?

For the first two cases, you will get a replacement... but it won't have iOS 6 or 7 on it. So that iPad 2, that you kept on ios6 or 7 and that was working swimmingly, is now gone. Poof.

And that software problem scenario? If the simple troubleshooting steps don't work, guess what...Apple says they will have to erase and restore your iPad and that means you _will_ be on the current iOS version.

So staying on an older version isn't always voluntary.

Guys like Channan won't tell you the real deal.
 
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