why does iphone 4s not have airdrop

Becaise it does not have a wifi direct chip that the iPhone 5, 5C & 5S have.

Because it is not an iPhone 5 or later

That is a lame excuse.

4S is very capable of sending and receiving files, you don't need special hardware for that.

There is for sure a commercial reason of dropping older versions even if they are not obsolete yet.

I would very like to find the technical reason behind this decision.

ZubaZ wrote:

That is a lame excuse.

4S is very capable of sending and receiving files, you don't need special hardware for that.

Correct.

However, in order to use wi-fi direct, (what AirDrop uses) you need chips with wi-fi direct.

I would very like to find the technical reason behind this decision.

You were already given the technical reason for it.

The iPhone 4S does not have a wi-fi direct chip.

I'd like to know the technical reason I cannot use FaceTime on my iPod nano.

and don't give me some garbage about it not having a camera...

There are signaling requirements within the radio chips

themselves that are needed to wifi direct capable. The

radio chip in the 4S (and earlier) does not have this capability.

Thank you all for your responses 😉

I am pretty sure, Apple will make iPhone 4S have Airdrop if they were not pushing 5s 5c to market. Not fair to old loyal customer.

They need to show the new phone have difference. AirDrop is out due to android has similar function.

Brilliant.

AirDrop uses ad hoc wifi for data transfer.

The older phones do not support it-it's a hardware thing that cannot be overcome by software.

Most android transfer apps use the slow as molasses Bluetooth, not the speedy and efficient wifi.

So does AirDrop use bluetooth to create the wi-fi connection? I've noticed that bluetooth automatically comes on whenever I activate AirDrop

Yes you need bluetooth 4.0, that's the main reason only iPhone 5 and higher have AirDrop.

Yes but iPhone 4S already have Bluetooth 4.0. As I know the AirDrop use wifi or Bluetooth. So if it have to use the wifi-direct chip to transfer data with wifi but the 4S doesn't have that chip why not use only the Bluetooth cause all these devices have. Where is the problem?

" So if it have to use the wifi-direct chip to transfer data with wifi but the 4S doesn't have that chip"

The "problem" is the iPhone 4S does not have wifi direct as you noted.

"why not use only the Bluetooth cause all these devices have."

Because AirDrop does not use Bluetooth to transfer data.

I also have iPad mini and when I use AirDrop it turns on the Bluetooth. So does it only use the bluetooth to verify people's devices?

It uses low power BT discovery mode to find and authenticate other users.