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Apple Says That All New Apps Must Support the iPhone X Screen (9to5mac.com)
Today, Apple emailed developers to inform them that all new apps that are submitted to the App Store must support the iPhone X's Super Retina display, starting this April. What this means is that developers of new applications must ensure they accommodate the notch and go edge-to-edge on the 5.8-inch OLED screen. 9to5Mac reports: Apple has not set a deadline for when updates to existing apps must support iPhone X natively. From April, all new apps must also be built against the iOS 11 SDK. In recent years, Apple has enforced rules more aggressively when it comes to supporting the latest devices. Apple informed the news in an email today encouraging adoption of the latest iOS 11 features like Core ML, SiriKit and ARKit. Requiring compilation with the iOS 11 SDK does not necessarily mean the apps must support new features. It ensures that new app developers are using the latest Apple development tools, which helps prevent the App Store as a whole from going stale, and may encourage adoption of cutting edge features. The rules don't mean that much until Apple requires updates to also support iPhone X and the iOS 11 SDK, as updates represent the majority of the App Store. Most developers making new apps already target iPhone X as a top priority.
while u suck them
If you can't sell it, you can at least force developers to pretend that it's relevant.
Funny how Apple used to joke that Android had a fragmentation problem, but now every time Apple releases something new, developers need to do specific things in their apps in order to properly support it.
AC comments get piped to
Given Apple sold 77M phones last quarter, I'm sure the failure of the iPhone Z would be loved by practically every other phone manufacturer out there. They'd love to have a phone that fails like the iPhone X.
No, the iPhone X is not discontinued. What it means is that the "cheap iPhone" will be the iPhone 8, when the iPhone 9 is introduced this year. The iPhone X will be discontinued, probably with the introduction of the iPhone X-2 or whatever. Basically, the iPhone X series will not become the "cheap iPhone" line that Apple sells to get people in the door. Like you can buy an iPhone 7 still from Apple - Apple made the iPhone 7 the cheap iPhone, positioning the iPhone 8 as the cutting edge and the iPhone X as the ultimate luxury.
Demand for the iPhone X is softer than expected, likely because in China, the screen is not big enough for a status symbol. If you cannot require 3 hands to just hold it, and 5 hands to use it, it is a useless phone. And yes, I've seen people hold a phone using both hands because it was too big for one of them.
I've seen conversations on it too. "Oh, you got a new iPhone! Cool, how big is the screen?" "5.7" "Oh, that sucks, it's too small".
As for developer support, it's for new apps only - so they can start from scratch with the windowing model properly supported - the old one works just fine but if you're starting anew, it makes sense to add support for it since you're not dealing with legacy code.