Rumor: iPhone 3GS Won't Get iOS 5

Rumor: iPhone 3GS Won't Get iOS 5


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I doubt they'll completely cut out the 3GS support from iOS 5 since they are still selling it, but it'll most likely be missing a lot of the functionality like the 3G with iOS 4.x is..but with the next revision of iOS, I'm sure 3GS will be excluded..

Regards

And here they start " Apple sucks bc they wont be supporting my old phone"

TattooedMac said:

And here they start " Apple sucks bc they wont be supporting my old phone"

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Yep, between this and Lion, they should have a field day this year.

At some point people must realize in order to move forward that legacy will be left behind but that does not make the older equipment stop functioning.

osxx said:

At some point people must realize in order to move forward that legacy will be left behind but that does not make the older equipment stop functioning.

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Yeah, but the problem is that the 3GS is still being manufactured and sold today (and at $49, it's a great alternative to even the cheapest iPod). This is bringing a lot of new customers into the Smartphone and even the Apple ecosystem. It would be extremely bad mojo to cut it off at the knees by skipping it with iOS 5.

Isn't this what causes so much of Android hate? Fragmentation from old devices?

shutterbrandon said:

Isn't this what causes so much of Android hate? Fragmentation from old devices?

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There's a big difference between what Apple is potentially doing and what Android does.

shutterbrandon said:

Isn't this what causes so much of Android hate? Fragmentation from old devices?

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Fragmentation is a different concept altogether. Apple's devices run a consistent UI and hardware platform, and just about any app that runs on one iOS device, will run on another.

But I understand the sentiment... this will basically ostracize a very large (and growing) segment of iPhone users that have a device that is otherwise perfectly viable.

It does smack of "planned obsolescence".

osxx said:

At some point people must realize in order to move forward that legacy will be left behind but that does not make the older equipment stop functioning.

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That would be a valid statement if the hardware had a life more than 12-16 months..but if they start obsoleting older devices at this faster rate, then there'll be a lot of pushback..

Consumer devices might not have the kind of lifetime as other devices, but they definitely have a 24+ month life cycle..so Apple will definitely support a few generations..

Regards

Raz0rEdge said:

I doubt they'll completely cut out the 3GS support from iOS 5 since they are still selling it

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But by the time iOS 5 rolls out, with the new iPhone 5 I would imagine, isn't it likely they'll stop selling the 3GS then?

Supposedly they are releasing the iphone5 in fall. If they're selling the 3GS now that's like 4-5 months of "life" they are giving it if they cut it off from ios 5

NumberSix said:

But by the time iOS 5 rolls out, with the new iPhone 5 I would imagine, isn't it likely they'll stop selling the 3GS then?

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If the 3GS sales stop before iOS 5 is released, then it's possible that iOS 5 will lack support..but if not..it'll have support..in some limited fashion..

Regards

I'm not 100% sure how diverging code streams (we're assuming here that the 4.x code stream will continue to see patches/updates) is anything other than a development necessity, especially if we're to see a new phone hardware set. People are already complaining about the size of update downloads now. As it stands, the 3gs is seeing mostly fix content at this point. Which, IMO, is fine.

I don't understand why people are acting like the iPhone 3GS won't work any longer if it doesn't get iOS 5? It's not like dropping 3GS support in iOS 5 suddenly makes your 3GS into a brick.

People bought the 3GS for what it could do when they bought it. It still does those things. Whether or not it gets iOS 5 doesn't stop it from doing the things that you liked when you bought the phone.

I don't see the outrage if this were to happen.

schweb said:

I don't see the outrage if this were to happen.

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The only outrage I can imagine is if we have a repeat of what happened with the 3G and iOS 4 when it was first released..

schweb said:

I don't understand why people are acting like the iPhone 3GS won't work any longer if it doesn't get iOS 5? It's not like dropping 3GS support in iOS 5 suddenly makes your 3GS into a brick.

People bought the 3GS for what it could do when they bought it. It still does those things. Whether or not it gets iOS 5 doesn't stop it from doing the things that you liked when you bought the phone.

I don't see the outrage if this were to happen.

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Well, you know some folks like to complain. With the way smart phones are moving forward tech wise right now, complaining you can't get the newest OS on a device that's 2 generations back - don't really have a leg to stand on. Not unless you're one of those that wants to stop advancement.

The ones buying the 3GS right now at $50 - knowing it's a generation behind already - they really have no leg to stand on.

And yes, I'm still using 2 3GS iPhones here. It actually does more than it did when I bought them thanks to iOS 4. I'm still betting that I'll be able to sell them for enough to cover the cost of upgrading to the 5th gen when it makes it to market.

Dysfunction said:

I'm not 100% sure how diverging code streams (we're assuming here that the 4.x code stream will continue to see patches/updates) is anything other than a development necessity, especially if we're to see a new phone hardware set. People are already complaining about the size of update downloads now. As it stands, the 3gs is seeing mostly fix content at this point. Which, IMO, is fine.

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I would expect the 4.x may get some fixes near term but then it will be dead. I don't believe that 3.x has been updated in some time now, 4.x will become the same way probably by the end of 2011. This really doesn't make it a diverging code stream it simply makes it attrition. This is the same thing Apple does with OSX.

Raz0rEdge said:

The only outrage I can imagine is if we have a repeat of what happened with the 3G and iOS 4 when it was first released..

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And that's exactly why they shouldn't release iOS 5 on the 3GS if the hardware really can't handle it.

baggss said:

I would expect the 4.x may get some fixes near term but then it will be dead. I don't believe that 3.x has been updated in some time now, 4.x will become the same way probably by the end of 2011. This really doesn't make it a diverging code stream it simply makes it attrition. This is the same thing Apple does with OSX.

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It's the same thing everyone does to be honest. Once diverged, one codestream will eventually be deprecated, left to only critical fixes, then eventually EOL'd.