What happens when your device is no longer supported?

[theredensign]

Hi all,

At present, I own an iPhone 5 and an iPad Air 1. Both have and still continue to serve me well, and the recent update to iOS 10 continues to improve the experience (although the iPhone has slowed slightly).

However, given that iOS 10 does not support the iPhone 4, it would seem reasonable to assume that by next year, my iPhone 5 will not be able to run iOS 11. So, in the event that this is the case, what will happen in terms of mainstream applications such as Facebook, Gmail and others? Do developers effectively cut off their application development to older iOS's, eventually making them practically unusable from an App point of view?

In addition, in preparation for the above, would it be a sensible idea to get rid of the iPhone now and upgrade, whilst it is still supported and sellable? If so, is it worth waiting for the iPhone 8?

Many thanks,

Kind regards,
Jack.

 

[LoveToMacRumors]

Wait for the iphone 8

 

[C DM]

Hi all,

At present, I own an iPhone 5 and an iPad Air 1. Both have and still continue to serve me well, and the recent update to iOS 10 continues to improve the experience (although the iPhone has slowed slightly).

However, given that iOS 10 does not support the iPhone 4, it would seem reasonable to assume that by next year, my iPhone 5 will not be able to run iOS 11. So, in the event that this is the case, what will happen in terms of mainstream applications such as Facebook, Gmail and others? Do developers effectively cut off their application development to older iOS's, eventually making them practically unusable from an App point of view?

In addition, in preparation for the above, would it be a sensible idea to get rid of the iPhone now and upgrade, whilst it is still supported and sellable? If so, is it worth waiting for the iPhone 8?

Many thanks,

Kind regards,
Jack.

At some point down the line developers make their apps only compatible with later iOS versions, but that doesn't generally happen right away. And even when it does it usually means that you just won't get new updates but the version of the app that you have will still typically still work as it did before (although at some point further down the line it might not). Basically for the most part things will still work fine at least with what you already have for some time, usually with the device becoming a bit too old for typical use by the time many apps might stop working.

 

[Galacticos]

Hi all,

At present, I own an iPhone 5 and an iPad Air 1. Both have and still continue to serve me well, and the recent update to iOS 10 continues to improve the experience (although the iPhone has slowed slightly).

However, given that iOS 10 does not support the iPhone 4, it would seem reasonable to assume that by next year, my iPhone 5 will not be able to run iOS 11. So, in the event that this is the case, what will happen in terms of mainstream applications such as Facebook, Gmail and others? Do developers effectively cut off their application development to older iOS's, eventually making them practically unusable from an App point of view?

In addition, in preparation for the above, would it be a sensible idea to get rid of the iPhone now and upgrade, whilst it is still supported and sellable? If so, is it worth waiting for the iPhone 8?

Many thanks,

Kind regards,
Jack.

Your question about sellability is very valid.
I was indifferent (for the first time 'ever') about the iPhone 7 when it was announced, but selling my iPhone 6 and getting a good carrier plan while it lasted and then getting an iPhone 8 IF they have more than just colour updates will work out to cost be about the same as keeping the iPhone 6 and trying to sell it as a 3 gen old phone. Seeing as apple are getting better at marketing trivial changes as features, swapping now seemed a better option than indefinite waiting

 

[oldmacs]

Who knows what will happen with iOS support. The 3GS was the first to support 3 updates, the 4S was the first to support 4 updates, Possibly the 5 will support more. Nothing is set in stone.

The worst part is where certain services stop working - e.g. Apple always bloody changes the file format for iWork, so a week after iOS 10, if I had updated my macbook's iWork, no documents synced through iCloud would be able to be opened on my iPad 2, despite the fact it had support a week before.

 

[stooovie]

Big apps like Facebook or Instagram typically support older devices and iOS versions much longer, as they can afford to. It's difficult for small dev to keep a fleet of devices and test on everything, but it's not a huge deal for big corporation that wants to maximize their reach.

Specifically with iPhone 5, I think you'll be fine for at least two to three more years. The device is still strong. It will probably not get iOS 11 (that will probably drop 32bit support altogether), but it's still plenty powerful and a lot of people have it.