Why are there no apps compatible with my ipad mini???

This is no longer possible.

Seems as if you own a nearly 8-year old, 1st genetation iPad Mini.

A 1st gen iPad Mini cannot be upgraded beyond iOS 9.3.5/9.3.6.

These 8 and 9-year old iPads are just simply too old, now!

The internal hardware is too old, underpowered and completely incompatible with any of the current and future versions of iOS/iPadOS.

Sorry. It is what it is at this very late date, now here in the year 2020.

If you need an iPad that can run the latest and greatest versions of iOS, as well as, the most current apps available, then, you need to purchase a new iPad from Apple or a discounted, refurbished iPad from Apple’s Refurbished & Clearance section of Apple’s Website or a new or refurbished iPad from an Apple authorised, third party retail or online reseller OR other trusted sources for new or used Apple products.

These old iPad 2, 3, 4 and 1st gen iPad Mini models are nearing 8 and 9-years old, now.

As of the beginning of 2019, many, MANY third party app developers are all more quickly, completely and permanently dropping older app support for all old 7, 8 and 9-year iPads that are running 2-3 year old and earlier iOS versions ( iOS 10 and earlier ).

Third party app developers are removing all of their older, legacy versions of their apps from Apple's App Store servers, now.

Third party app developers no longer want to support these 8 and 9-year old or older iOS devices, any longer!

Older versions of apps are, soon, going to be gone for good, now!

Getting older versions of apps for these old iPad models, initially from Apple’s iOS App Store is getting very difficult and very problematic and this issue is getting, painfully, much worse in 2020, now!

These old iPads are now reaching their complete end of life and support.

So finding older versions apps for older iPads, while still possible, currently, will be a tough challenge, now, in 2020.

Old iPads that can no longer be upgraded/updated will have NO MORE APPS AVAILABLE for initial download, at all, soon, from the Apple iOS App Store, for such old iOS devices in the very near future.

Older versions of apps for these older iPads will be completely gone, at some point, in the very foreseeable future.

So, this is really now the time to seriously consider a new or discounted, refurbished iPad from Apple or other Apple authorised resellers.

A lot has happened with iPad and iOS in 7-9 years and in the past 2 to 3-1/2 years since iOS 9 and 10.

As an example and compared to your nearly 8-year old iPad Mini,

The baseline 2019, 10.2 inch screen 7th gen iPads have a 1/2 inch larger retina screen, newer, more powerful and nearly 2-1/2 times faster 2.3 Ghz, A10 Fusion processors, AT LEAST, 3-4 times the internal RAM, with the 2019, 7th gen iPad having 3 GBs of internal RAM, iPadOS 13 support, with much better and improved multitasking features, Apple Pencil and Apple Smart keyboard cover support and have better audio speakers and better/improved built-in cameras.

Sorry & Best of Luck to You!

I have just replaced my wife’s original iPad Air that I bought her when they came out. Nothing wrong with it as it still worked fine just some of the apps she used needed updating to work (security purposes) & the newer versions required the latest iPadOS. I think the same about some of the phones such as the original SE that is sat on my desk Is nothing more than an actual phone only now, where it could be re-cycled by myself as a touchpad for my iPad Pro if Apple allowed it to be! I can’t even use it as a remote for any of my Apple TV boxes as cannot download the Remote app for it due to the iOS age.

I can see the point if the apps required more than the hardware can offer such as 64bit processing on a 32bit processor or more RAM than the devices had, but I have original MS Surface Pro devices from launch that are running the latest version of Windows 10 & latest versions of Adobe Photoshop/Premiere Pro with no problems at all & minimal accepted performance hit because of the hardware specs (can’t do anything about that), but they still operate fine. I also have a 15yr Dell Server in my loft running at the moment mainly for serving Plex media around the house that is running MS Windows Server 2019 without any problems & actually better than it did other versions of Server such as 2012! Apple products aren’t as cheap to buy as the equivalent hardware in a PC or other devices & seem to have a shorter lifespan than most computers. I will say though that Apple provide updates longer for their mobile/handheld devices than the vast majority of Android device manufacturers, but as a whole, you can get much cheaper Android hardware so not as much of a hit to the pocket if after a couple of years it cannot be updated any further. If Apple didn’t use aluminium or stainless steel chassis & fancy designs for the products then the price could come down as you just know that most of the cost of a MacBook Air is going to be the chassis followed by the display panel as the same spec internals on a Windows laptop would cost a third of the price !

iSmellofNorman wrote:

I could cry.

I'm not sure it's worth investing in another one if it will become useless in 7 years.

Really??/...

Actually your iPad Mini is 7-1/2 years old and will be 8-years old by October!

Apple supoorts their mobile devices for 5-6 years ( 2013, 1st gen iPad Air received 6 years of iOS upgrades/updates and is still consistently receiving third party app updates ) and third party app developers continued with app support for another 2-3 years.

That 2012 iPad Mini has finally reached its limit for all of that support!

Other device makers, AT THE MOST, only offer 2-3 years of product manufacturer support and those third party app developers for those other mobile device makers may give those 2-3-year old supported devices only another year of app support!

Apple has the longest device and third party app support! Everyone other device makers offer lesser time of support!

Mobile device technologies move ahead and leave older mobile technologies behind at a much faster rate than full featured computer technologies.

If you can't afford to save up for a newer mobile device every 7-8 years, then maybe you should consider NOT buying any more mobile electronics devices.

Both the mobile electronics industries and consumers demand these device move toward being full featured computers we can more easily carry around everywhere, so older technologies that are 5-8-years old are goung to fall behind and not be able to be supported any longer.

It is what it is and this is never going to change.

I have been writing people/users here, in these Apple iPad support communities for these past 3 years, that once Apple moved on to all 64-bit coded devices and software, over 3-years, ago, with the introduction of iOS 11, that these older 5 year old devices THEN, were now on borrowed time and that all support for all of these earlier iPads ( iPad 2, 3 4 and 1st gen iPad Mini ) was going to fully end in 2-3 years!

That time is here, now!

So, it is what is now.

iPad 2 and 3 are 8 and 9-year old devices, right now ( April 2011, 2012 )

iPad 4 will be 8-years old in September and the 1st gen iPad Mini follows with being 8-years old by

October ( Sept 2012, Oct 2012 )

Whatever you decide you want to do about it this eventuality, now, is solely up to you and your discretion!

Sorry & Best of Luck to You!