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Appocalypse Now - How iOS11 Will Kill Some Of Your Favourite iPhone Apps (independent.ie)
Ronan Price, writing for Independent: The app-ocalypse is coming and almost no one knows it. Apologies for the dreadful pun but, in about six to eight weeks' time, hundreds of thousands of older apps for iPhone and iPad will cease to work when Apple updates its iOS software to version 11. Businesses and consumers who rely on these elderly apps and update to iOS11 without knowing the consequences face a rude awakening. Their difficulty ranges from mere inconvenience that a useful app no longer functions to the complete loss of valuable data buried in a piece of obsolete software. Apple began signalling two years ago that it was signing the death warrant for older apps when it moved iOS to 64-bit software - essentially a more secure, faster and technologically advanced version that replaced the previous 32-bit code. First, Apple encouraged developers to rewrite their apps to 64-bit status but continued to allow 32-bit apps to function. Then it began to warn developers and customers that future iOS updates would experience compatibility issues. You may have seen -- and ignored -- the messages when launching apps in the last year telling you "App X needs up to be updated, the developer needs to update it to improve its compatibility." Finally, just this June, Apple confirmed that iOS11 would put the kibosh on 32-bit forever when it's released into the wild in late September. The announcement came and went with little fanfare from the public's perspective.
Also, one would hope the upgrade process scans for 32-bit-only apps and informs the user "X App" will not function after this OS upgrade. Are you sure you want to proceed?
Undoubtedly, some idiots will still press "Yes" and proceed to bitch afterwards, but that's people for you.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Precisely! I had an iPod Touch that wouldn't upgrade beyond iOS 4.3. Every app in it was fine. Only problem: if I went to the app store, there was no app there that would still run on this device.
I don't really have a problem with Apple dropping support for old versions of the OS - you can't expect a device to come with unlimited support for the lifetime of the hardware without paying for a support contract.
This is the common assumption that I think needs to be challenged at this point.
As a professional software developer, I understand the implications here. In fact, I've argued before that platform software like Windows or iOS ought to come with a specific length of support guaranteed and then something like a support contract that lets customers extend the support for essential functionality to keep their devices and other software running so they're not forced to change something they're happy with but the software developer isn't forced to write a blank cheque the moment they sell anything. This seems like a reasonable approach to me that is good for everyone.
However, in just about any other context, we expect that if we buy something, particularly something expensive, then it will do its job. In fact, that's the law in a lot of places. If your washing machine or your TV or your car doesn't work properly or breaks within an unreasonable period of time, the vendor/manufacturer has to put it right, or compensate you in some other appropriate way. What is considered reasonable depends on the nature of the device and how much it costs, but obligations can last for many years.
While I'm generally supportive of the right-to-repair movement, I think that is a separate issue here. What we're talking about in this case is simply whether you can continue to use your iWhatever and the software that goes with it in the same way as you bought it, but with defects (such as security vulnerabilities or functionality-breaking bugs) made good.
Clearly the technology landscape is changing, and these days it's not just about the device as you bought it but also the surrounding ecosystem, the software you can run on it, the data you store on it and within that software, and so on. These aren't simple questions at all, and I doubt there are many "right answers" here. But I still don't see why manufacturers of tech equipment or software should get a free pass on the basic principles that we apply everywhere else. They ought to be required to support what they sell properly for a reasonable period, with no other strings attached, or to compensate customers who lose out because something doesn't work properly.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.