Whenever Appleputs an older machine out to pasture, people complain.
Everyone else is getting all the cool new features for free, so why not me?
Obviously, it’s a conspiracy to make me buy a new iPad, they say.
Arthur Lambillotte / Unsplash.
But even the shallowest research shows how this isn’t true.
Apple supports products for ages, usually formuch longer than its competitors.
And sometimes, it supports older devices for too long.
Marek Levák / Unsplash
“However, their decision to stop supporting some older iPads with iOS 17 isn’t surprising.
Those are the iPad 5th generation and the first iPad Pro, initially sold in 2015.
This means some pretty old devices will still run iOS 17, including the 2017 iPad Pro.
Compudemano / Flickr
We’re starting to see that Apple keeps updating even pretty ancient devices, measured in mobile computer years.
That’s around eight years.
Marek LevAk / Unsplash
This kind of support can extend the useful life of a computer.
For example, many apps will only support the last few iOS versions.
However, eventually, even Apple has to drop support for older devices due to technical limitations.
But you’ve got the option to’t go on supporting older devices forever.
And in fact, sometimes, Apple has updated iPads that it should have left behind.
This model launched in 2012 and came with iOS 6 installed.
But then came iOS 9 in 2015, which turned that iPad mini into an impossible-to-use piece of junk.
The hardware clearly couldn’t handle the software, resulting in slowdowns everywhere.
In fact, that’s not accurate.
after you grab an app open, it’s fine.
It’s the rest of itswitching apps, opening tweaks pages, and so onwhich is excruciatingly slow.
If I had stuck with iOS 8, all would have been fine.
And yet surely there were people complaining when Apple finally did drop support for this iPad the next year.
As you’re free to see, things have gotten a lot better.
And the mini was sold up until June 2015.
