Does apple deliberately slow down all but the latest iphone with every ios update?

[poofyhairguy]

I'm really tired of android's poor battery management... my new Nexus 6 drained the battery when I was sleeping down to 92%.. in airplane mode... this time the "google app" did it... so now I have to figure out why it did it and perhaps shut it down.... when in airplane mode sitting in standby the phone should not be draining the battery for any reason... I guess you get what you pay for when you go to Apple... you can set it and forget it without having to diagnose these silly battery drains...

Upgrade it to Android M and the Doze feature will fix that for you.

 

[Commodus]

I almost went and switched to apple this week.. it's their greed that kept me from doing it... I want a large screen phone but I'm not paying $1000+ for their newest flagship phone.

I wanted to get a lightly used, like new Iphone 6 Plus off ebay but when I saw there was only 1 gig of RAM in it, I went and ordered a NIB Nexus 6 for $250 less.... had they put 2 gigs in that phone I would have been a convert but they are just too greedy for me.

I was shortsighted and never bought the stock... I thought people had more common sense than to spend the increasing price they are charging but clearly they do not... I should probably buy the stock.. clearly people will pay $1500-2000 for a new iphone so they will keep increasing the price.

Why do I want to switch to Apple? I'm really tired of android's poor battery management... my new Nexus 6 drained the battery when I was sleeping down to 92%.. in airplane mode... this time the "google app" did it... so now I have to figure out why it did it and perhaps shut it down.... when in airplane mode sitting in standby the phone should not be draining the battery for any reason... I guess you get what you pay for when you go to Apple... you can set it and forget it without having to diagnose these silly battery drains...

I never quite get the "Apple is too greedy" argument. Not that Apple isn't being stingy, but its devices tend to be great on launch and fare well after at least their first major iOS update (so in other words, at least two years). Sounds like a reasonable balance between Apple's profit margins and real-world use to me.

That and I think I'd rather have Apple's greed than the 'generosity' that has led HTC, LG, Sony and others to the financial brink because they're not making any profit on their phones. All companies are greedy on some level, because they need to make profit... it's just a question of how smart they are about doing that. Even Samsung's recent bounce-back isn't really attributable to its phone profits.

 

[mmntech]

Yeah... iOS 4 basically bricked my iPhone 3G as well. That pissed me off enough to switch to Android for awhile, but then Samsung/Verizon basically did the same thing to me with a bad Android update to my Galaxy S3.

Now I'm back to using Apple because I'm sick of the Android phone manufacturers mucking up my phone with bloatware. I now also know better than to click that Upgrade button on new OS update notifications before waiting a week and making sure that it doesn't have major bugs.

Next phone I get will probably be Android simply because I want to go off contract and I'm not paying $800+ for a new iPhone, as nice as they are. Whatever I do buy though will have to run either stock Android or Cyanogenmod, so I don't have to deal with bloat and I'll get semi-consistent updates.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I never quite get the "Apple is too greedy" argument.

Last year their $500 tablet was pretty much twice as powerful as their $800+ phablet because the phablet would sell more units no matter what. Every person in my life that now has a new 6s model who also had a 6 have admitted to me it is much faster and multitasks much much better. Holding back on the 2GB of ram last generation not only saved on part cost, but it will force owners from that generation into faster replacement. That is almost greed by definition.

 

[luv2liv]

it's pretty obvious to me apple intentionally cripples their older products to coax people in buying the latest model.
think about it. if you update the OS and realize it's not good, you can never ever revert! why is that??? it's because you are now SOL and it's time to buy a newer model or....get an android.
on my android, i can install any ROMs from honey to lolli, or lolli back to honey. on windows, i can update to win 10 or go back to xp.

 

[Commodus]

it's pretty obvious to me apple intentionally cripples their older products to coax people in buying the latest model.
think about it. if you update the OS and realize it's not good, you can never ever revert! why is that??? it's because you are now SOL and it's time to buy a newer model or....get an android.
on my android, i can install any ROMs from honey to lolli, or lolli back to honey. on windows, i can update to win 10 or go back to xp.

Remember the saying: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

It's nice to pretend that Apple is purposefully neutering old devices through iOS updates, especially if you're a diehard Android fan, but that just doesn't make sense. Besides the absurdity of the notion that it would devote lots of attention to making an OS worse on old hardware (their hands are usually full enough adding new features), it's inconsistent with Apple's practices. Why would it go out of its way to support someone's 4-year-old iPhone, but in a willfully half-hearted fashion? If it really didn't care, it'd just drop support considerably sooner.

The likely reality is far more boring. Apple only has so many engineers, and may just have its hands full trying to support recent hardware, let alone something it hasn't sold at all for a year or two.

And repeat after me: ROMs are not an option for most people. They're cop-outs to make up for vendors that intentionally abandon you quickly. And on Windows... no, sorry, that 10-to-XP example isn't true in many cases. Many PCs have hardware that just wouldn't work in XP (or Vista, or even 7) due to either a lack of drivers or just base-level OS support.

Besides, you're not exactly helping your case given that one of Microsoft's core problems is that tendency for people to either cling to old operating systems or revert back. Yeah, I'm sure Apple really wants a security mess where most users are running operating systems at least 6 years old.

 

[fr]

My iPhone 5S feels slower going from 8.4.0 to 9.0.2. It is most noticeable when waking it. There is a longer delay until the lock screen fades in.

 

[luv2liv]

ok Com, how do you explain Apple not letting people revert to the OS that works best?
remember how my dad's ipad1 works perfectly fine for web surfing. after he accidentally updated OS, safari grinds to a halt! im not kidding.
and he cant revert to the previous version. i cant do it. no one can revert. i would be amazed if you can!

 

[Commodus]

Last year their $500 tablet was pretty much twice as powerful as their $800+ phablet because the phablet would sell more units no matter what. Every person in my life that now has a new 6s model who also had a 6 have admitted to me it is much faster and multitasks much much better. Holding back on the 2GB of ram last generation not only saved on part cost, but it will force owners from that generation into faster replacement. That is almost greed by definition.

I don't think the iPad Air 2's performance edge had as much to do with greed as you think. It was more powerful than more expensive phones in no small part because Apple could pour more tech into a larger processor (the A8X is big next to the regular A8), didn't have to pay cellular access costs and could afford to scale back on things like cameras.

That and we honestly don't know exactly why Apple didn't go with 2GB of RAM in the iPhone 6. It may have been cheaping out... or it may have determined that there wasn't enough board space, that there was too much power drain, or something similar. I just don't like leaping to conclusions based on hunches and suspicions.

 

[Commodus]

ok Com, how do you explain Apple not letting people revert to the OS that works best?
remember how my dad's ipad1 works perfectly fine for web surfing. after he accidentally updated OS, safari grinds to a halt! im not kidding.
and he cant revert to the previous version. i cant do it. no one can revert. i would be amazed if you can!

For the most part, it's about security.

Apple signs each release for a reason: it's so that malware writers can't push out bogus releases, and so that people aren't simply restoring to vulnerable versions.

Also, the original iPad isn't a great example... it's 5 years old, and hasn't received iOS support for a while. How about the iPad 2 user who still has a good experience four years on? Or the iPhone 5 owners I've heard of who say that iOS 9 still runs well? There's part of the problem: if this was really a sinister conspiracy to wreck people's devices, the performance on old gear wouldn't vary so widely.

 

[openwheel]

So slower performance is a prerequisite in the name of security. Okay Got it

 

[WelshBloke]

For the most part, it's about security.

Apple signs each release for a reason: it's so that malware writers can't push out bogus releases, and so that people aren't simply restoring to vulnerable versions.

Also, the original iPad isn't a great example... it's 5 years old, and hasn't received iOS support for a while. How about the iPad 2 user who still has a good experience four years on? Or the iPhone 5 owners I've heard of who say that iOS 9 still runs well? There's part of the problem: if this was really a sinister conspiracy to wreck people's devices, the performance on old gear wouldn't vary so widely.

While Google probably needs to go more towards Apple's update approach maybe Apple needs to move towards a more Google type of approach and decouple the 'bloat' from the OS?

('bloat' used as a general term for stuff added to the update not essential for the running of the OS)

 

[mrochester]

Last year their $500 tablet was pretty much twice as powerful as their $800+ phablet because the phablet would sell more units no matter what. Every person in my life that now has a new 6s model who also had a 6 have admitted to me it is much faster and multitasks much much better. Holding back on the 2GB of ram last generation not only saved on part cost, but it will force owners from that generation into faster replacement. That is almost greed by definition.

Absolutely, the 6S is better than the 6. But when the 6 came out, there was nothing better to buy. So it was either but the 6, or nothing.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Absolutely, the 6S is better than the 6. But when the 6 came out, there was nothing better to buy. So it was either but the 6, or nothing.

Actually I don't really think the 6 was a bad buy. The 6+ phablet with the same SoC+RAM but with a higher resolution screen was the bad buy.

 

[Commodus]

So slower performance is a prerequisite in the name of security. Okay Got it

Didn't say that. At all.

Apple is thinking about security -- the problem is that it hasn't been astute enough in making sure that hardware on the trailing edge runs smoothly. iOS 9 is a start... here's hoping that later versions are better about running well on older gear.

 

[Commodus]

While Google probably needs to go more towards Apple's update approach maybe Apple needs to move towards a more Google type of approach and decouple the 'bloat' from the OS?

('bloat' used as a general term for stuff added to the update not essential for the running of the OS)

I could see that. I doubt we'll see it decouple a ton of things like Google has, but a few upgradeable apps (such as Safari) and their underlying services? Maybe! It'd be a way to support people whose devices are a bit too old (say, 3-4 years) without making them update absolutely everything.

 

[QueBert]

iOS updates aren't automatic and aren't forced on to you. People should read up and see what it'll do to their device before they install. Lord knows Googling will give you an endless amount of information on any iPhone and any version of iOS together. I held off on 9 until it was JB'ed a few days ago. I know a lot of people still on 7.x and even a few still running 6.x Not being able to revert back does suck I will admit that, but my phone wouldn't have 9 on it if it wasn't for me. So if I wish I was still @ 8.2 I have nobody but myself to blame.

 

[openwheel]

According to Com, you lose security by not upgrading to latest software, which defeats the core purpose of using iOS. Apple supposedly has better security.

 

[deputc26]

Just got an iPad mini 2 last week, I can't count the number of times the browser has crashed and the system has hung, my nexus 7 is better.

 

[deathBOB]

ok Com, how do you explain Apple not letting people revert to the OS that works best?
remember how my dad's ipad1 works perfectly fine for web surfing. after he accidentally updated OS, safari grinds to a halt! im not kidding.
and he cant revert to the previous version. i cant do it. no one can revert. i would be amazed if you can!

Who does? I have a 2013 Moto X currently running 5.1. AFAIK, there is no way for me to automatically revert this phone or obtain a copy of a previous version from Motorola.

I think Hanlon's razor applies here. Apple has a rigorous annual update schedule for iOS, and they publish software that isn't quite finished because of it. Google has the same problem (see 5.0 release) but its not widely experienced because updates roll out so slowly and unevenly.

 

[openwheel]

I can revert back to older software, but I have a rooted phone.

 

[zaza]

I can revert back to older software, but I have a rooted phone.

Are you talking about android? If yes then you're wrong, you don't need to be rooted to install an older android version.

If you're talking an iphone, then you're also wrong, cause you can't revert to older ios versions regardless of whether you're jailbroken or not.

 

[TheStu]

How much of iOS9 does the 4S actually get though? My iPhone 6+ doesn't even get the most standout/useful feature of iOS9 (side by side apps), so when I keep hearing about iPhones having the latest OS it bugs me because if my device isn't getting the advertised features of the new OS, then in my mind it only "sorta kinda" has the latest OS.

Same would apply to any Android phone today without a fingerprint scanner.

Side by Side apps, or Split View in Apple parlance is ONLY available on the iPad (Pro, Air 2, mini 4). It does not exist on the iPhone, no matter the version.

 

[Commodus]

According to Com, you lose security by not upgrading to latest software, which defeats the core purpose of using iOS. Apple supposedly has better security.

In terms of real-world security... yes, yes it does. Look at malware infection rates: Android isn't the majority, but iOS infections are effectively non-existent. The first "major" attack on iOS was due to Chinese devs using unofficial tools they didn't realize were compromised, not purposeful malware campaigns.

I'm not saying that iOS doesn't have security issues (Apple isn't always quick to patch things). However, there are some inherent advantages. Because of both the narrower range of hardware and a refusal to cave in to carriers, those OS updates roll out far faster than with Android -- over 50 percent of active iOS users were running iOS 9 within a week of its launch. Even if Apple is slower to issue patches, it's practically more secure because the majority of its users get those patches. Less than a quarter of Android users are running any version of Lollipop, let alone Marshmallow. Most of them are permanently vulnerable to Stagefright and other attacks, even if they're running something relatively recent. OEMs may be promising monthly security updates, but most of their customers won't get them.

Again, this isn't to let Apple off the hook for poor performance on older devices. However, I don't think that Apple is wrong to upgrade those devices on some level. What's the alternative? Arbitrarily cutting off support after two years? We've already seen how well that works.

 

[Artdeco]

It's going to take a massive security breach in older Android phones before anyone that matters will address the security problem. Unfortunately, it'll mean a ton of older Android phones get trash binned.

And as far as the thread subject, it's just the nature of OS updates, more code, more cpu cycles needed. If you have an older device, that's what happens.