Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy_T
Why should it not?
For a customer-driven company like Apple alienating existing users is most likely more a problem than having to force some iPad-1-users to upgrade. (especially as this would not work. Those who don't want to upgrade would simply not upgrade to the new operating system and complain about being excluded)
|
I've used Apple products for over 20 years. Basically what happens is that every several years, the Apple OS is upgraded to a point where it will not work on machines that are 4 or 5 years old. For example, I have one of the early Intel iMacs, and it is not going to be able to run the Lion version of iOS.
Now, the iPads are early in the cycle, so ordinarily I would not expect much of a change in the OS for a couple more years. But Apple has a history of introducing products which seem, at least to me, to not be quite complete. The first iteration of a device seems to be left behind sooner than later iterations.
So my hunch is that the next version of the iPad will be sufficiently different from the iPad 1 that we are going to find that the next version of iOS is optimized for that device, leaving the iPad 1 to shift for itself. This is about the time when we might also find the iPad 1 batteries running out.
In short, Apple's version of planned obsolence has to do with the OS, since the devices just work forever. Heck, I still have an operating ColorClassic II that I boot up once a year just to see if it's still working. It's been 15 years...