"Under the radar" planned obsolescence?

[Tuttle]

Just saw a news feed saying that Apple, with aforethought, builds in "slowdown" into each os upgrade to shoehorn us into having to upgrade our hardware.

Can't say about the "planned" part, but it is a fact that my iPad 1 has slowed down dramatically with each of the 5 upgrades. It is now slow as molasses with 5.1.

Anyone else have this problem?

 

[MrLuke]

I've always thought this could be a possibility, my 2nd gen iPod touch is far too slow to use regularly anymore. Whether this is due to updates like you're suggesting or just it's age and use is hard to tell. In fairness the latest update does normally ask for more ram than the previous due to the extra functions and thus there may be a slow down, but not really intentional. In all honesty though, it does make good business sense, providing nobody finds out.

Sent via iPF from my iPad.

 

[Skull One]

ROTFL... They DO NOT purposely put code in to slow the device down.


Lets examine the reality.

They introduce the original iPad on iOS 3.2. They introduced iOS 4.0 ten weeks later. IF they had not made it available to the iPad users, they would have been CRUCIFIED by those very consumers. So they allowed it to upgrade. Then iOS 5 comes out 16.5 months after the introduction of the iPad 1. Again, what do you think consumers would do if they didn't offer the upgrade? Revolt would be a good word to use.

They programmed iOS 5 with the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPad 2 in mind. Anything they made work on OLDER devices was a GIFT. Simply put they have more code that does more. OF COURSE it can and will run slower on a SLOWER DEVICE. This is common sense, not rocket science.

 

[Tuttle]

Yeah, I kinda' agree, at least to an extent.

I doubt that any code is put in whose special purpose is to slow things down. But the iPad 1 does not, for example, have a camera. So why not make the software to handle a camera optional. Same thing for Siri---if you do not have it and use it, why have to accept software for doing that job?

So, could be that the decision to load up those upgrades with all the bells and whistles might not be all that innocent---.

 

[janner43]

ROTFL... They DO NOT purposely put code in to slow the device down.


Lets examine the reality.

They introduce the original iPad on iOS 3.2. They introduced iOS 4.0 ten weeks later. IF they had not made it available to the iPad users, they would have been CRUCIFIED by those very consumers. So they allowed it to upgrade. Then iOS 5 comes out 16.5 months after the introduction of the iPad 1. Again, what do you think consumers would do if they didn't offer the upgrade? Revolt would be a good word to use.

They programmed iOS 5 with the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPad 2 in mind. Anything they made work on OLDER devices was a GIFT. Simply put they have more code that does more. OF COURSE it can and will run slower on a SLOWER DEVICE. This is common sense, not rocket science.

I completely agree - and to be honest, the main issue IMO is lack of ram. The ram efficiency of iOS is amazing - but 256mb on an iPad1 is always going to struggle compared to the 1gb on iPad3.

 

[MR1]

Here's a thought, don't upgrade your software. Newer software should mean more function. Some things not thought of three or four years ago are now popular. For a while our older hardware can understand some of the new instructions. If we are happy with our older technology we don't need the upgrades. When the old stuff can't do our bidding, time for new stuff.

 

[zstairlessone]

Yep, remember that the new iOS is written for faster, more capable hardware. Look at your computer operating system, DOS would run on old 8088 and 8086 systems with almost no memory and almost no video memory (and very limited video hardware). Windows 7 needs hardware that wasn't dreamed of 20 years ago, 3D video processing, fast audio, Super fast 64 bit processors with Giga Bytes of RAM, Same for older and newer Apple computers (Lisa, Mac etc) and the new systems. The operating systems weren't written to 'slow down' the old computers - they were written to take advantage of the more modern and more powerfull hardware.

 

[Webalistic]

Here's a thought, don't upgrade your software.

Well, I wouldn't if that was a straight forward option. I had some apps that I use a lot on my 1pad.
At some point though, they stopped working and told me to upgrade to 5.1 if I wanted to continue using them.
Other apps couldn't be upgraded without the OS being the latest version.

But I agree with the above that optimising for a newer generation of hardware can mean (but not necessarily) you lose optimisation for older hardware and hence things get slower.
I don't think apple does that on purpose or by design, on the other hand, I also think they don't exactly see it as a problem either.

Make me wonder though... are apps going to be filtered on OS version in the app store now the 1pad is 'left' behind with IOS 5.1.1 ? Because there will be IOS6 only apps at some point.

 

[scifan57]

Well, I wouldn't if that was a straight forward option. I had some apps that I use a lot on my 1pad.
At some point though, they stopped working and told me to upgrade to 5.1 if I wanted to continue using them.
Other apps couldn't be upgraded without the OS being the latest version.

But I agree with the above that optimising for a newer generation of hardware can mean (but not necessarily) you lose optimisation for older hardware and hence things get slower.
I don't think apple does that on purpose or by design, on the other hand, I also think they don't exactly see it as a problem either.

Make me wonder though... are apps going to be filtered on OS version in the app store now the 1pad is 'left' behind with IOS 5.1.1 ? Because there will be IOS6 only apps at some point.

It's entirely up to the app developer what the minimum system requirements of an app are. You are correct in that an increasing number of apps will, in future, not work on the iPad 1 as they are upgraded and require iOS 6 as the minimum system requirement. This also includes newly developed apps that require iOS 6 or above to operate.

 

[MR1]

I did not intend to sound insensitive in my prior comment. The correct term is 'functional obsolescence' for what we are talking about. While the product may still work, there are better solutions. Some call it progress.

 

[Seadog]

The problem is that all technology is moving faster than ever. Some Chinese CEO says that Apple is doomed because they do not update the iPhone more than once a year. It is a convoluted issue that means any device over two years old is obsolete. Some Android devices, every year. And some devices are obsolete in a matter of weeks, never to be heard of again. Apple tries to walk the line between getting out more powerful devices with each version, and supporting older models.