[dukeluke]

That's not unintentional, though. It's just a form of planned obsolescence, which can be avoided by getting an Android phone that can have CyanogenMod installed on it. Alternatively, you can get a Nexus phone, which recieves OS updates directly from Google instead of a third party.

[kec]

Progress != planned obsolescence. The iPhone 7 has more than an order of magnitude more compute power compared to the 4s, and app developers are targeting that device as it's actually selling today.

[dukeluke]

That's true, developers can focus on the new platforms, but that doesn't mean new iOS versions should make older phones become much slower.

[kec]

That alternative effectively means dropping support entirely (or allowing the whole ecosystem to stagnate based upon the lowest common denominator), something most android OEMs do after a year or two. You can't have it both ways. We're lucky that competition in this space means consumers have choice as to which style best suits their needs.

[dukeluke]

You can have it both ways. They can support the old version by providing security and stability patches without adding the new, computationally expensive features to the old phone.

[vbezhenar]

They can at least allow downgrading to old iOS. I don't really understand their reasoning. I can decline upgrade request for years, but if I hit "OK" once, it's game over. Either upgrade automatically and don't ask me, if you're so security-consicous, or allow downgrading.