That is an incredibly unfair and ignorant question.
No, of course not, there are more, compute heavy, features and it's not worth it to spend huge amounts of time to support a phone you're no longer selling.
> it's not worth it to spend huge amounts of time to support a phone you're no longer selling
Unfortunately, without the newer versions of the iOS the phone loses functionalities pretty quickly (the apps will require newer versions of iOS), which, quite conveniently for Apple, will make you need to buy a new one. Aka planned obsolescence.
But kudos for getting at least one version of iOS to perform better than the last one (if that's true). That would be awesome if they actually kept this as a long-term trend.
Yes, as hardware improves and the OS and applications take advantage of this hardware, newer applications may run slower on older hardware. I'm not aware of any phone manufacturer or OS for which this isn't true. AFAIK, there is no other system that supports this level of backwards compatibility.
It shows that sustainability is not even an afterthought. Everybody is ok with throwing away perfectly working devices (i.e. devices that were blazing fast just a couple years ago and now, with some crippling os updates, take 10 seconds to open a PDF) just because they're 3-5 years old. Let's see if Apple really does change their policy on this. For premium, very expensive phones, it would be reasonable for them to be fully functional (with no slowdowns) for at least 5 years.
I don't have this information. However, IMO the current Apple's approach suits a vendor of $300 phones, not $1000+ ones. If Apple really wanted to be the technologic leader in this field, the gigantic markup and the billions of dollars that they make on phones should be funneled into engineering excellence (stability, security, performance, device longevity) and not gimmicks (face recognition). Unfortunately, it seems that the market does not demand engineering excellence even from premium products.
I'm pretty sure the parent comment wanted you to talk about Android, where vendors ending software support and updates before the phone is even bought is the norm.
You have no idea what you're talking about, or you're maliciously spreading a lie. Apple consistently keeps old devices running, and running well, on old hardware.
Of the competition, only some environments running on Linux/BSD kinda manages to do the same. Android is just laughable in comparison.
> Everybody is ok with throwing away
> perfectly working devices
People do that? All the iPhones I ever owned were passed on to someone. The oldest are not in the useable state right now I guess, but I hope they were given for recycling not just thrown away.
Apple has allowed users to download the “last compatible version” since 2012.
I reset my first generation iPad - last updated 2011 - last year and was able to load and run older versions of most of the apps for streaming services that were available back then - Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, Spotify, Plex, etc.
"Last compatible" means no more security updates, which basically means - we no longer care about the flaws we've made, go ahead and risk your privacy (including for example your life savings if you bank online).
Also, my experience with the last compatible version (for iPhone 4 IIRC) was that IIRC neither Skype nor Hangouts worked anymore. Plus the whole device was incredibly slow.
What security flaws do you expect in older versions of apps that were able to escape the iOS sandbox that were later fixed by updating the applications?
What exploit has there been in an app that let it exfiltrate data from another app or read your web browsing history for any version of iOS?
As far as Google, it’s no surprise that Google abandoned older protocols. That’s kind of their MO....
But what unpatched security flaws have been reported in older versions of iOS that would allow an attacker to install a keylogger or otherwise exfiltrate user data?
Wow the downvotes without comments are interesting. I can only guess that they are from people who are so used to getting f*cked by the tech industry that they don't see anything wrong in having to throw away a perfectly-functioning device only because it's 3-5 years old. Now imagine cars were made like that.
Ok not neccesarily throw away then, but, as someone else said, put them in the drawer or give them some non-phone function. For example, my iPhone 4, still perfectly functional but crippled with iOS update that made it too slow to be usable, is now a white noise machine near my bed.
Unfortunately, without the newer versions of the iOS the phone loses functionalities pretty quickly (the apps will require newer versions of iOS), which, quite conveniently for Apple, will make you need to buy a new one. Aka planned obsolescence.
But kudos for getting at least one version of iOS to perform better than the last one (if that's true). That would be awesome if they actually kept this as a long-term trend.