Why does apple slow down old devices?

As the others have said, older devices move slow. Largely because software gets faster sooner than hardware.

I have an iPad 2. I gave it to my mom when I purchased my mini 4. And yes, it is slower....but the iPad 2 is a five year old device. Which, in technology time, is positively ancient. It's most likely the reason that the iPad 2 is not listed among the devices eligible for iOS 10 when it comes out. ANd the same reason that the first gen iPad maxed out at 5.1.1.

Everything is made to fail, break, feels old. It is part of the design.

Our iPhones, macbook are sleek and beautiful. When people the first scratch or bump on their devices, they'll get upset, while the engineers and marketing folks at Apple smile and applause. Apple has the knowledge and experience to design and produce within those parameters. It is not innocent.

I have been using Apple products for 20 years, and the way a Mac Plus was build back then is way better than today. But back then the computers were so quickly obsoletes that people just wanted to buy another one.

The problem is that today you can have a computer that you can use to type, edit 2K resolution, browse the internet with a machine that is 5 years old. And that's not good for consumerism. Our society is set in a way that everything becomes obsolete and we are pushed to "upgrade" all the time. Unfortunately.

rafaelmacho wrote:

The problem is that today you can have a computer that you can use to type, edit 2K resolution, browse the internet with a machine that is 5 years old. And that's not good for consumerism. Our society is set in a way that everything becomes obsolete and we are pushed to "upgrade" all the time. Unfortunately.

As I noted above, I'm happily using a 2011 MBA. It actually runs a bit faster under El Cap than it did under Yosemite. It does everything I need in a perfectly acceptable fashion. I expect to get at least another year out of it before I start thinking I might need a new one but it will probably be about two before I get around to updating it.

Again,

You are stating your own opinion here.

Apple does not force you to upgrade/update anything.

No company "pushes" you to do ANYTHING!

The choice is always yours.

If a particular user feels the need to always have the latest and greatest of any technology, then they will never be satisfied with any device they own.

While I have a new, large iPad Pro (I have been waiting for larger instead of smaller iPads since the original iPad came out in 2010), I still use 4 and 5 year old iPad 2 and 3 models.

My iMac is from 2009 that I purchased used in 2011 running two OSes that are 3-4 generations older, but run much better for my hardware and software.

I choose to keep running my older devices and computers because they still do the things I need them to do.

I will end up repairing my iMac (as long as its not the screen or logic board) if something happens to it OR WILL BE FORCED into purchasing another used or new Mac if my current one just completely dies.

I am not being forced or pushed to upgrade or update my current Mac hardware to something new/newer and faster just because that is the current state of technology.

I have a 6 year old flat screen, 55 inch plasma TV that I will not replace until it dies.

I am in no hurry to spend money on the latest and greatest TV/video technology.

No one is forcing me to go out and purchase the latest and greatest of ANYTHING, either.

Older technology is not, by design, developed and designed to get slower and obsolete.

At the time it was developed, it was state of the art and the OS and other software were paired to match the current state of computer technology.

Over time, software that gets developed for much newer hardware starts to tax and exceed older hardware.

It's not developed like this by design, it is just a result of technology always moving forward.

You can choose to try and constantly keep up with it or stick it out with older hardware that, while maybe slower or simply not doing things as fast as it used to function on the original software it shipped with, still can do the things that you needed the devices and computers to do when you, originally, purchased it.

Electronics/computers are just like the automobile industry and cars.

In order to stay in business, they need to come out with new models every year.

You can choose to trade in a year old car every year for a new model or you have choices, too!

Keep a car for only a couple years and trade for the latest and greatest model or keep your new car for 6-10 years before trading in or just purchase a new model car outright in that 10 year time.

No one is forcing you to purchase a new car every year or every few years.

THAT choice, also, comes down to the individual.

This is all sort of moot point now as both the upcoming iOS 10 AND macOS Sierra will obsolete all iPad 2, 3 and first gen. iPad Mini models as well as some iPhone models and all but the new iPod Touch 6th gen models.

macOS Sierra will obsolete all iMac 2007,2008 and early 2009 models, as well.

So, to get iOS 10, iPad 2, 3 and Mini users have a choice to either stay with an iPad with whatever last version of iOS 9 presents itself OR will have to purchase a new or newer model iPad.

Same with Mac users with OS X Sierra.

iOS and OS X are undergoing some real modofications under the hood that older model hardware will simply not be able to handle, now.

I am hoping to try and push out my 2009 iMac for another three years.

If I only have to swap out a failing hard drive or power supply or GPU (no logic board or failed LCD screen), I'll do a repair/ replacement of those components if they fail before the 3 years AND if they can still be had.

I am thinking about trying to find and purchase a GPU card/chip for my 2009 iMac model, now, and just hold onto it until a failure and have an authorised service provider install it whenever this decides to fail.

This will be the longest I have ever held onto a Mac.

Doing everything I can to keep my iMac running as cool as I can possibly get it to run.

Can't afford, for the immediate future, to shell out any more cash for expensive electronics.

Here's hoping for the best!

I had my G4 tower for over 8 years!

No way. I have been repairing phones in shop for years and have had my share of androids and iPhones and Apple updates are garbage. I am so tired of people coming in my shop after a major iOS update and complaining about how slow their iPhone is and how they went to Apple and they couldn't care less. I understand how newer software uses more resources but Apple operating systems are the only ones where doing the exact same task under the same conditions on exact same device is much slower with new software. lol your saying black is white, I on a daily basis operate several android devices that are years old and have been through numerous major software releases and are just as fast as they always have been. But older iPhones on newer software are just laggy as f anyone with any technical background in mobile platforms knows this.

Uh,

Just because the little red update button comes up doesn't mean you need to update anything and upgrade/update ANYTHING immediately, either!

You CAN just choose to ignore the message and the red little dot!

Also, you CAN also, delete the update entirely from an iDevice.

My mother just recently got the little red dot to update to iOS 9.3.5.

I tell her all the time to just ignore it and wait until I can test speed and compatiblity on my own older iDevices.

And I check the forums, right off the bat, to check for any initial issues from other users who just can't wait and have to upgrade/update their computers and devices immediately, ASAP, like NOW isn't fast enough, when they get that little red button pop up!

AND, I don't see my family on a regular basis, so she'll just sit on an update until I can get her iPad do these updates on my own computer through iTunes for her. My mother's Mac is waaay too old to handle the new iOS and newer iDevice versions.

Sometimes she will miss out on iOS update or two.

Oh well, no biggie.

Good thing because, like me, sometimes when Apple releases a bad update, we miss them and wait it out until a fix by Apple.

Not everyone jumps on the red ball/red button warning band wagon!

You do have a choice and options.

<Edited by Host>

mdelaney2014 wrote:

But older iPhones on newer software are just laggy as f anyone with any technical background in mobile platforms knows this.

I also have an extensive technical background (as do many of us here), work with iPhones, Android, Windows and even some Blackberries still running Blackberry OS every day. What you're saying is absolute nonsense and only shows you don't know enough about how iPhones work to adequately assist your customers.

mdelaney2014 wrote:

Lol you probably work for Apple.``

This is a user-to-user forum. The only Apple employees posting here are the Community Specialists who are identified as such and the Hosts who rarely post but who have purple Apple avatars. If I worked for Apple, why would I be working everyday with phones with other operating systems? Your logic is on a pare with your ability to punctuate properly.

I agree! I am suffering the same fate at the hands of apple. they don't let you downgrade back to an older version of ios because they WANT this to happen. when your ipad was made in the factory, the factory workers burned immutable code into your device. the code told your device how to enter this thing called DFU mode. DFU mode is the first code that ever ran on your device in it's lifetime. you can theoretically downgrade your device to any ios in DFU mode😮, but for itunes to flash it onto your device, it must be signed with a cryptographic key that only apple knows. And it's unique for your device. And guess what?! They REFUSE to sign older firmware👿👿, like the kind that was, you know, ACTUALLY MEANT TO RUN ON AN IPAD 2!!!!!!! So your running ios meant for an ipad like the ipad air 2. No wonder it's slow.

seriously though, maybe if you made a video about giving your ipad 2 away to a homeless person of made a video about smashing it and throwing it into a lake, maybe you could get the money to buy a new ipad from apple! AND THIS TIME, NEVER UPGRADE IT MORE THAN ONE VERSION UP FROM THE STOCK SOFTWARE.

Not really running an iOS meant for more recent devices because, as you are fully aware, many new and useful features of the very recent iOS versions get stripped out of older iDevices based on the age/year of the iDevice.

iPad 2, 3, 4 and 1st gen iPad Mini owners really only get variations of the base iOS operating frameworks.

Older iPad users really get a stripped down, bare bones iOS experience.

As far as slow downs are concerned, I have to report that, for some strange unknown reason to me, the last "emergency" iOS 9.3.5 update has really noticeably sped up my iPad 2 this time around.

My iPad 2 had been woking fairly well and fairly snappy on previous versions of iOS 9, but for some strange inexplicable reason, my iPad 2 is running MUCH snappier and better than it had been in quite sometime on this most recent iOS update.

I wonder if Apple didi more with this, seemingly, quick update (maybe Apple had been working on a iOS 9.3.5 update before someone found this latest security breach) other than just plug a security hole, because my iPad seems to to be just faster than it has been in quite sometime.

It is a pretty noticeable and welcome change in all around responsiveness!

No rhyme or reason why this has happened, but I am a very happy camper about this.

Hey Michel, my ipad 2 with 9.3.5 has also revived. From a slappy brick it has become an almost usable device

Fortunately Apple won´t let my ipad to upgrade to iOS 10 so the improvement will be permanent

I thought the same. They removed my post about this. I had the same question "If apple deliberately bugs old phones to sell new ones to frequent users?". But there are a lot of researches online about this. Those sound like they do slow them down. 3 of us at home each suddenly have a major bug with our iPhone 5S's!

AppleIsSnake wrote:

I thought the same. They removed my post about this. I had the same question "If apple deliberately bugs old phones to sell new ones to frequent users?". But there are a lot of researches online about this. Those sound like they do slow them down. 3 of us at home each suddenly have a major bug with our iPhone 5S's!

There are also a lot of posts online about people being abducted by aliens. That doesn't make it true.

If you start your own thread, explaining your specific issues without the conspiracy theories, I'm sure someone will be able to help you resolve them. There are a lot of people here using older hardware very successfully.