"However, it won’t be long until it becomes an attractive option to increase sales."
Seriously? Um, it's already an attractive option. Always has been, if you are a lazy, sloppy company. Apple's eschewed this option approximately forever, and there's no evidence of anything different.
Siri for only iPhone 4S when iPhone 4 hardware could support it was one chink in their impecable reputation for supporting older hardware as long as possible.
http://www.tuaw.com/2012/02/06/siri-may-be-iphone-4s-only-be...
The fact that Apple supported iOS 6 on the 3GS is proof that they're pretty serious about backwards compatibility.
"However, anecdotally, it seems that people are upgrading their iPhones and iPads in longer cycles."
The entire article is based on personal observation. This is has very little to do with the wider market.
It's a matter of leaning forward or leaning backward. Another strategy Apple will likely pursue is to continue to break into new markets. The TV from Apple is likely the next innovation and area of growth that will boost Apple's outlook and get stock values up again. And that may happen this year. And beyond the TV I think Apple will be exploring other areas. We know that smart cars are coming with iOS integration. That will generate a good deal of revenue for Apple. Products like Nest and Bluetooth LE devices will also become quite handy. Just look at the Nike Fuelband, Jawbone UP and Fitbit for examples of new opportunities for hardware which integrates with the iPhone and gives consumers new gadgets to buy which leverage Apple products. Also keep in mind products like Pebble which are smart watches which integrate with the iPhone and Apple may even create their own smart watch which would surely do well given how popular the idea is with Pebble.
Apple does not need to get people to buy new iPads more frequently. They can simply create more products we are willing to buy.
No, they dropped the floppy disk for aesthetic reasons. Steve was adamant about there being only a trayless CD drive, and USB. The original iMac had a CD tray, but it was switched to trayless in the first revision.
This came back to haunt them, as early CD burners only came with a tray, but aesthetics trumped utility.
It's probably less about upgrade revenue than the new opportunities in the SoC space which, unlike desktop/server CPU's, are increasing in performance/W at a much greater clip.
Software tends to expand to fit hardware capabilities, so as newer hardware comes out, software is written to use, then require the added performance.
If Apple could have shoehorned iOS 6 onto the original 256MB RAM iPad, they probably would have, but it probably performed so badly they avoided it.
Definitely. Just look at the Android OEMs (HTC, Samsung, etc). They're always at an impasse to whether they should continue to update their devices to the latest Android version (and avoid angering customers) or stop updating to boost more new phone sales. On average though, it seems the assumption they can sell more devices seems to win out for Android OEMs than updating.
Most Android users have no idea what Android version they run (and what the latest version is) and I think the lack of being informed allows the Android OEMs to get away more often with not pushing updates. Android users figure out they need a new device when they realize they can't run a certain app or the apps they use no longer perform as well. Some probably also figure it out by comparing with friends' devices.
Only exception to the above really are Nexus devices since Google has no great vested interest really in selling more of them and benefits more from everyone having the latest Android version. Unfortunately, Google seems too worried if they pressure OEMs to push more updates in an assertive manner, they will suffer backlash from them.
edit: typos
I'm sure others haven't been so lucky.
The idea that Apple is purposely introducing bugs to degrade user experience is silly. There is no conspiracy.
I have changed over 8 phones in 2 years and it has been actually rather frustrating. It was at the time when smartphones were coming out. Of course , as a geek, I had to have one. It was nightmare. Displays were unresponsive, phones were freezing etc. I end up using old keyboard-standard nokia for few years.
About a year ago, I have been using Galaxy for few months. The experience was much better then my first phones, but still not perfect. And then I bough my dream phone. Many of you might not know it, but its called XiaoMi (小米). It is chinese phone, but not some chinese garbage it is well thought-trough phone, performance much better then newest galaxy and armed with android and MIUI on top. Peope say that Xiomi company is like apple in china. I have to say I have never been so happy with phone.
XiaoMi now released version two of their phone. The phone has everything that first version is missing, and I am very temped to buy it, but there is a bit of fear if the phone wil let me down the same way my first phones did. And i am so happy with my current phone, why would I change? Maybe in few years....
Apple also tied app support for the iPhone 5, and future iPhones, to ending support for the iPhone 3G and its ilk; I understand that long build times are far from desirable, but this move seems like a great way to encourage upgrades.
Then again, maybe I'm just a cynic.
Edit: I've not used an iPhone 3GS on a day-to-day basis, but I've seen better performance out of my first gen iPad (and maybe it's just me) just before it was EOL'd than I ever saw with the iPhone 3G/iPod touch 2G family, both of which were truly awful performance-wise before Apple pulled the plug. I'm guessing the real reason for keeping support for the iPhone 3GS but not the iPad 1G was, as coob mentioned, the fact that it was on sale when iOS 6 was released.
The net result is that the iPhone 3GS is much faster in practice than the original iPad (or the iPod touch 4G, which has similar issues to a lesser extent — but which they still sell, so can't drop support for). Another similarly underpowered device is the iPad 3, so I'd expect them to drop support for that even before the older iPad 2.
http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/compare/1635302/16...
So it's faster than a 3GS http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/compare/1634913/16...
It's mostly strange because iOS 6 didn't really add any performance-critical changes, it was mostly changes to iCloud. Unlike iOS 4 that added multitasking, for example. Well, the new Maps.app is likely more demanding than old one, so perhaps they kept back the entire iOS 6 because of that.
I'm another person that's perfectly content with my iPad 1, I have a laptop that's working great (with Ubuntu) after 6 years and I tend to wear things out before I upgrade. I was disappointed with Apple's "throw-away" chassis on the new MacBook Pro and it seems like the trend is only getting worse.
I'm no expert on compilers, but I find it hard to see how that isn't deliberate, or what other benefits it provides.
