Apple accused of ‘sabotaging’ older iPhones? Get real

Jonny Evans

Watching Apple since 1999. I don't say what they should do. I say what they might do. They sometimes do.

4 Responses

  1. ViewRoyal says:

    Obsolescence is not really “planned” at all. Obsolescence happens when newer, better technologies usurp older, obsolete ones. The car replaced the horse. The smartphone replaced the mechanical, rotary dial phone.

    But even within a technology category, improvements happen in steps. Black & white TV, color TV, 720p flat screen, 1080p, 4K, etc. The same is true for smartphones. Hardware and software improvements are made as the technology advances.

    But people who complain about “planned obsolescence” have a simple solution to end their complaints… Just don’t buy anything new!!!

    If your old flip-phone, or your smartphone from 2007 still meets your needs, don’t buy the latest and greatest. As long as you take care of your devices, they should last a long time (but don’t expect companies to support obsolete products forever, because it is financially and technically impossible).

    There is no “best before date” stamped on your smartphone. But as technologies advance, don’t be P.O.’d because your old devices can’t do the same things as the new devices. If you want to stop time, join the Amish. ;-))

  2. Paul Robinson says:

    The key is what Jonny mentioned late in the story– users should always be given the chance to return a previous version of the OS, and especially, the original iOS that the device came with.

    But then Apple wouldn’t be able to proclaim that 70%, 80%, 90% of its users or devices were using the most recent OS.

    They also need to stop the automatic downloading the installers for new OSs… they finally provided a way to delete the installer file (often a HUGE one), but that’s opt-out, not opt-in.

    If Apple really, truly wasn’t hoping that users of older devices wouldn’t be frustrated, they would provide *warnings* for older devices that would accompany the update dialog boxes. It’s not enough to have the info buried on their web pages (or even highlighted there) as most regular users aren’t in the habit that we tech aficionados and gurus are of being Apple watchers or rummaging the website or the tech news.

    Good column!

  3. Ponse says:

    There is some truth to this claim that when it comes to iphones, new iOS upgrades does make the operation slower. Thats why unless needed I am very careful when upgrading. The ordinary person does not know that and usually trust Apples request for upgrades all the time.

  4. Eric Zylstra says:

    Old OSes have known vulnerabilities. It is insecure to roll back.

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