Dear Apple,
It would seem to me that creating an environment where your products have designed obsolescence is wrong on any number of levels.
“An aging relative thought he might like to read on a Kindle type device. I took my working IPad version 1 and reset it to its factory original specifications. I then made him an apple account on iTunes and attempted to download Netflix, Kindle and some other games he might enjoy.”
My plan had one major flaw that I had not anticipated. Not only do all apps require an IOS of a later date but, I cannot update to any more recent IOS that was on there because it is no longer available. The latest IOS will not support the iPad 1, and I suspect the iPad II may be close to becoming obsolete as well. Since this was my first iPad and I have moved onto the II, IPad Air, and the Pro, I no longer had the backup from that iPad version 1, making it now a paperweight.
Might I suggest that you make available the latest IOS for those devices and a cache of apps that will work with them? I realize that this might affect people buying new iPads and phones and such vs. keeping their old ones going a little longer but, each phone and each iPad was not cheap. While they may not be a primary device, they will still play a movie or music and serve some purpose vs. filling a landfill.
In the previous case mentioned, a tablet running Android IOS for $100 took care of everything that he needed. While I would have preferred that he was able to use my iPad 1, I was not about to drop $1000 for a tablet to read, play games and maybe watch Netflix on.
I still have my first iPhone and use it for music, the same is true with the 4S. These are great for plugging into your car. Even with the cellular service terminated, it will still function to dial 911 in a pinch. It of course also has your music which plays nicely through the stereo, replacing the iPod. The apps that I purchased at the time still work beautifully as well.
I must admit that I find it curious how the old updated iPhone 4s performs nicely compared to my 6S which has become slower and slower with every update. Is that my imagination? I think not.
The PC industry has been guilty of this for years, although one could blame it on programmers designing software on the latest and greatest hardware.
What we used to refer to as “tight code” is no longer necessary as programmers have terabytes of space, gigahertz of speed and of course gigs of memory to store that slack code in to.
Programming back in the day, was probably more of a challenge than it is today.
Whether the hardware drives the software industry or the other way around, it is the consumer that gets the short end of the stick.
Apple should have a place where one can obtain the latest IOS (or last available) for their particular device, and apps that were written for and worked with that version of the IOS.
While the tail rarely wags the dog, as we are learning with recent events, consumers, if rallied and coordinated, can wag the dog.
Should we organize a campaign to wag the dog?
My two cents!
Scott
TheTimeDok 