Last year at around this time, I posted a similar thread about speculation as to which iOS devices wouldn't make the cut for iOS 8. Fun times were had by all and now it's time to do so again. It's pretty safe to assume that anything that came out this year and/or has either some form of A7 CPU or A8-based CPU will be supported. Less certain is anything else. Rumors suggest that iOS 9 will be an optimization update akin to Snow Leopard for the Mac platform circa 2009. Some tend to look at that in one of two ways. (a) That means they're removing bloat from the code. Or (b) that means that they're adding in support for future technologies that will set the stage for a whole new generation of features down the road. Really both of those are two sides to the same coin. Some have suggested that this might be a 64-bit only release (which would effectively eliminate the iPhone 5 and 5c, fourth generation iPads and older, as well as all A5-based devices) in the same vein that Snow Leopard was OS X's first Intel-only release. What say you?
Personally, I am unsure of the 64-bit only rumors. It would make some degree of sense and it would help Apple optimize development of iOS immensely (which would ultimately help smooth out performance issues that made iOS 8 noticably slower on A7 devices than iOS 7), though limiting the fourth generation iPad and iPhone 5/5c would be more aggressive of a limitation than either product has seen in years. I'd say that the A5 devices are out given how difficult it has been for Apple to optimize performance on those devices for iOS 8. Then again, the issue may be strictly RAM-based, in which case, the A5 devices go, but the 1GB of RAM in the A5X of the third generation iPad might give it some staying power.
Many will cry foul given that Apple still sells two devices (the fifth generation iPod touch [a product that is fairly neglected on the whole these days] and the first generation iPad mini [a product sold purely at the lowest entry level price they've ever had for an iPad, a fact that may very well concede as long of a supported software life-cycle]).
What say you?
(Please refrain from injecting your own personal wishes and desires. This is about what you think Apple will do given the facts and rumors that have already been presented).
Personally, I am unsure of the 64-bit only rumors. It would make some degree of sense and it would help Apple optimize development of iOS immensely (which would ultimately help smooth out performance issues that made iOS 8 noticably slower on A7 devices than iOS 7), though limiting the fourth generation iPad and iPhone 5/5c would be more aggressive of a limitation than either product has seen in years. I'd say that the A5 devices are out given how difficult it has been for Apple to optimize performance on those devices for iOS 8. Then again, the issue may be strictly RAM-based, in which case, the A5 devices go, but the 1GB of RAM in the A5X of the third generation iPad might give it some staying power.
Many will cry foul given that Apple still sells two devices (the fifth generation iPod touch [a product that is fairly neglected on the whole these days] and the first generation iPad mini [a product sold purely at the lowest entry level price they've ever had for an iPad, a fact that may very well concede as long of a supported software life-cycle]).
What say you?
(Please refrain from injecting your own personal wishes and desires. This is about what you think Apple will do given the facts and rumors that have already been presented).
