iPhone Does Apple deliberately slow its old models before a new release?

[ucfgrad93]

I don't see how Apple could do this without people uncovering it in the code of their updates.

I think the real issue is that Apple holds back hardware specs, and then when updates come to a 1 or 2 year old device, the device may not be able to handle it -- slowing down, glitchy, etc. And so people get the impression Apple intentionally cripples their devices to "force" upgrades.

Agreed. I don't think that Apple intentionally slow down old models. It would have come out by now.

 

[rui no onna]

My iPhone 3G in an AT&T landfill somewhere with iOS 4 on it says yes

Probably not though, bad testing and a whole bunch of embarrassing quality assurance failings can account for that mess and as far as I am aware no other iPhone model has had that intense of a slow down. Likely just people being paranoid

The iPhone and iPhone 3G had ARM 11 and just 128MB RAM compared to 600MHz Cortex A8 and 256MB RAM on the iPhone 3GS, and 800 MHz Apple A4 (Cortex A8) and 512MB RAM on the iPhone 4. I think the difference in CPU architecture and memory was just too big to overcome.

That said, I do think Apple is a bit stingy when it comes to RAM. They always seem to put in just the bare minimum that they can get away with. I found the iPod touch 4th gen to be slower and more crash prone compare to the iPhone 4 despite both having the same CPU and GPU. The difference? 512MB RAM on the iPhone 4 and just 256MB RAM on the iPod touch.

 

[SpyderBite]

This was researched in depth back in the early 80s.. With VHS players.

FTC would come down on any company that intentionally practiced planned obsolescence like a ton of bricks.

 

[Mechayoshi]

Am I missing something or are people are surprised that an older device running newer software might be slowed down?

 

[gotluck]

Am I missing something or are people are surprised that an older device running newer software might be slowed down?

well the case is actually the opposite with stock android.

 

[sracer]

I personally think iOS4 or iOS5 to be the best of the bunch. My pinnacle on battery life on the platform was iPhone 4 on iOS4. I generally could get 10 hr screen time usage on Wi-Fi and my iPhone 4 once had a month on standby while on airplane mode. After iOS5 with the pull-down notifications, iCloud, more Apple bloatware, and faster GPU of the 4s and later models, battery suffered since with maybe 6-8 hr screen time usage and lower standby times.

My experiences confirm your comments. My daily driver is a 32GB iPhone 4 running iOS 5.1.1. (primarily because of the custom settings I made for it to be fully functional in StraightTalk)

Performance and battery life remain terrific... 2+ years later.

I don't think Apple overtly plans to slow older models down, but they DO make the decision of which older devices are eligible for upgrades. THAT is where they can be a bit more covert about it. But it is a balancing act... too restrictive and they'll be accused of "abandoning" older devices, too permissive and they'll be accused of "sabotaging" older devices to upgrade.

Pre-iOS 7, I think that there was a reasonable case to be made that Apple made it very difficult to remain at an older version... especially with the auto-downloading of the installer of the latest available/supported version. But Apple has with 7.x provided the option to delete the updater.

That's a much appreciated change for me, and one that is making it easier for me to stick with an iPhone.

 

[nexus4life]

Absolutely not. Treat Daily Mail like IBTimes.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I experience less slow down from older Apple products with OS upgrades than any other products with OS upgrades. Even my iPad 2 and iPhone 4 remains quick. Of course some heavy apps(especially games) might seem noticeably sluggish.

 

[Savor]

I have an old iPhone 3G on 4.2.2 I restored. I can no longer re-download even the most simple apps like Solitaire or the original Angry Birds because most apps require iOS5 or higher. I had a Nexus One for 3 years with Gingerbread which came out the same year as iOS4. I could still download or update apps from this year or I can sideload an older apk if i needed to. Eventually iPhone 3Gs and 4 will be obsolete once iOS8 becomes a basic requirement. All single-core iPhones will get thrown by the wayside.

My launch day iPhone 4 experienced the same thing when I was forced to restore and update to iOS6 after getting a sim unlock. Stuttering animations or the screen won't go off. Battery took a hit. My original iPhone experienced the same thing and was quite unbearable by iOS3. And if iPhone 2G was bad on iOS3, iPhone 3G with the same guts is nearly unusable on iOS4! And one of the things I hate with iOS is say your computer got stolen or damaged, how do I recover my files? How do I put my files onto the newer computer? I was not on iCloud. I used Sharepod which recovered all my videos but photos were not in their original resolution. Losing many files has already happened twice on me. First with the 5th gen iPod and then iPhone 4 once my Sony laptop broke and was never given back from my so-called friend to fix it.

And iTunes was already bad after iTunes 10 with the nearly 100% CPU usage on Windows XP. I have an iPhone 5s which is carrier locked and I use as an iPod touch. Ever since I sold my laptop, I can no longer add files or even do a simple Bluetooth transfer because the only other iPhone I have is the 3G without AirPlay. My two Androids can communicate and share. This is one of the main reasons why I prefer Android. No iTunes or Sharepod to recover files inside the iPhone. I sold my Nexus One last week. But I still have the 32GB microsd card with hundreds of videos and thousands of photos. I just bought a 50 cent card reader that can attach to my LCD TV to view those media files. Very easy transition. With Apple, I have to bend over backwards or jump through loops just for the most simple tasks since it can't be read as a mass storage.

 

[Markyboy81]

It's obvious that the older devices will run worse on the new updates. I think Apple should allow users to roll back to a previous version of the software if they choose. The fact that they don't could lead some to believe that Apple are engaging in dodgy practices to heavily persuade customers to upgrade their phones.

 

[gotluck]

It's obvious that the older devices will run worse on the new updates. I think Apple should allow users to roll back to a previous version of the software if they choose. The fact that they don't could lead some to believe that Apple are engaging in dodgy practices to heavily persuade customers to upgrade their phones.

Agreed, the biggest issue is that you cannot downgrade

 

[JaySoul]

I've said this for YEARS so I still believe this to be the case.