General Is Apple ready to stop supporting the A5 devices?

[George Waseem]

A5 devices are said to be fully discontinued in 2016, most A5 devices have got 4+ Years of support from Apple including the iPad 2, iPad 3rd Gen, iPad mini, iPod 5, iPhone 4s. A lot of rumors say that apple is really going to stop supporting those devices very soon but when I read this type of rumors a question comes to my mind, "Is Apple really ready for a big step like this". 2 weeks ago I've seen an iPad and iPhone models market share and I was surprised to see that the iPad 2 is still the most popular model. For iPhones, the iPhone 4s is not anymore used by a lot of people. Do you all think apple is going to give the A5 devices another chance or is apple really going to stop supporting them ??

 

[Elisha]

The iPad 2 is popular cause it was sold in bulk to schools. Lots of schools went with those especially the Special Education departments to replace or supplement the Netbooks. Now they are all getting replaced by Chromebooks instead!
And the funny thing is that they are locked down and still run iOS 6 and in some cases 7.

 

[The Doctor11]

Yeah its time for Apple to drop A5. It lived a year longer the processors that came before it.

 

[BittenApple]

Why not 6s info on the iPhone chart?

 

[maxsix]

As iPhone sales soften, Apple's ability to control obsolescence is a true money making advantage.

 

[XTheLancerX]

I think Apple's ready. They already started cutting things out of iOS 9 for A5 devices. That's a sure sign of this being their last breath. It has to happen eventually, or all the new devices will forever be held back.

Also I think Apple screwed themselves by only putting 1GB of RAM in the 6 series. Look how many people will be stuck on 1GB of RAM with the crazy iPhone 6 and 6 plus market share! Apple will get really fragmented iOS development as a result, and it will be tough. "These devices support this and this, these ones barely can, these support this and not that due to RAM" etc etc. Not sure if I'm looking at this completely wrong as I'm not really a software developer but still.

 

[I7guy]

As iPhone sales soften, Apple's ability to control obsolescence is a true money making advantage.

Having record breaking sales every release is softening sales? Well okay then I guess multiple definitions of record breaking sales must be in effect on the Internet.

 

[Elisha]

I think maybe he meant softening iPad sales.

 

[I7guy]

I think maybe he meant softening iPad sales.

Seems like the norm for mobile devices and non-win intel devices supports stops after a few years. The hardware can't keep up with new software; so why support it? My laptop only 6 years old runs Windows 7, at a reasonable speed but software I use is very demanding sou bought a new laptop.

The a5 is ancient now, I can see why Apple cut out some features.

 

[George Waseem]

In my opinion, i think apple will release some kind of a new iOS version that supports A5 but with no extra features.

 

[nordique]

I too question whether or not Apple may give some further support for A5 devices. Had you asked me a few months ago, I would have been steadfast with suggesting iOS 9 is definitively the final update, but now I'm not so sure

Having just loaded iOS 9.2 on my 4s, I am pleasantly surprised at how smooth it is. It is noticeably smoother and lag-less in the animations department than iOS 8 and feels just as quick to launch apps.

Even the setup steps from a restore felt smooth. Never had that experience on iOS 8 as even in the set up there was stuttering and lag. It feels better and quicker than iOS 9.0 was at launch for the 4s too.

I know this is only my anecdotal experience but it is fast enough that I wonder if it could hold out for one more update

 

[nordique]

(Accidental Double post)

 

[Aston441]

Seems like the norm for mobile devices and non-win intel devices supports stops after a few years. The hardware can't keep up with new software; so why support it? My laptop only 6 years old runs Windows 7, at a reasonable speed but software I use is very demanding sou bought a new laptop.

The a5 is ancient now, I can see why Apple cut out some features.

I wish I could have the cut down version on ALL my iOS devices. They'd be a lot less stuttery.

 

[Radon87000]

Having record breaking sales every release is softening sales? Well okay then I guess multiple definitions of record breaking sales must be in effect on the Internet.

Is that why they ran to China?Everyone knows its because of flatlining sales everywhere.Even top analysts are predicting lower than expected sales for the 6S

 

[I7guy]

Is that why they ran to China?Everyone knows its because of flatlining sales everywhere.Even top analysts are predicting lower than expected sales for the 6S

Seriously, you don't think every company in the world wants to sell to China? The market is huge. I'm even surprised this has to be said.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Also I think Apple screwed themselves by only putting 1GB of RAM in the 6 series. Look how many people will be stuck on 1GB of RAM with the crazy iPhone 6 and 6 plus market share! Apple will get really fragmented iOS development as a result, and it will be tough. "These devices support this and this, these ones barely can, these support this and not that due to RAM" etc etc. Not sure if I'm looking at this completely wrong as I'm not really a software developer but still.

iOS apps actually use an incredibly small amount of memory. As this grows, however, it's more likely going to look like a situation where every to every-other app has to reload from disk every time you reopen them. These devices will also likely be limited in some future background OS services.

 

[Abazigal]

I have a feeling we have the iPad mini to thank for the A5's continued support. It's basically an iPad 2 marketed as a brand new device in the end of 2012, and Apple probably feels "obligated" to support it for at least 4 years.

I have a feeling this is where Apple's decision to use last year's parts in products like the iPad mini 4 will come back to haunt them in the near future.

 

[Elisha]

I have a feeling we have the iPad mini to thank for the A5's continued support. It's basically an iPad 2 marketed as a brand new device in the end of 2012, and Apple probably feels "obligated" to support it for at least 4 years.

I have a feeling this is where Apple's decision to use last year's parts in products like the iPad mini 4 will come back to haunt them in the near future.

People are not upgrading iPads like they do iPhones and that's why there is no regular sized A9 based iPad. There is no point because if it sells, chances are nobody will upgrade for a long time like the ones that bought the A8x based ones!
Planned obsolescence at work!
I still have my iPad 2 and don't think I will be upgrading it soon since it does minimal work. Mostly video streaming.