I fail to see how that is the case? Apple neither forces OS updates, nor forces app updates. An iPad will perform exactly the same, given the same software, after 5 years or 10 years, and the user is in control of that software.
If you are speaking of services, well, that's not unique to iPads, or Apple, but is a consequence of the Internet.
Apple will let you download the most recent version of an app supported by your OS... but only if you'd installed it previously. If you try to install an app for the first time, it won't give that option, and will instead tell you to upgrade your iOS instead. And then there's the fact that many of the old apps simply won't work, because they rely on out-of-date API's no longer supported by servers.
Due to the inability to choose versions of apps to install, I'd say that in iOS the user is not in control of their software.
The only thing that hamstrung me was having to sign out and in to the itunes store once, but i was able to install several games and hulu(which worked!)
I do wish you got a popup with a few options of which point release to install, but i think "newest compatible point release" is a good system for 99% of users
When I was growing up, my parents would give me their 5 year old hand-me-down computers, which were already 4-5 years old or so. the iPhone 4 is 8 years old, so that would already be DOA for my teenage self.
My dad is happy with his iPad 4th generation, which is one iOS version behind. But he is more patient than I, and also it's his only internet-connected device, so he's not comparing it to a fast PC or fast smartphone.
I find this amusing; iOS 6 is just 4 years old (at least, the newest revision of it). My iPod Touch is about 9, and started losing access to new apps about 6-7 years ago.
And of course, Youtube, Netflix, and such stopped supporting the relevant codecs years ago too.
Back to the iPod Touch that I was talking about: The Netflix app that's on there (the newest available for iPhone OS 3.1.3) apparently can't authenticate with Netflix's current backend. Their site says that there's a version for iOS 5 that will still work, and that the current version requires iOS 9.
As I said in another post, comparing the longevity of a mobile device in its first decade to a PC is Apples and Oranges.
Today, I have a few 10 year old computers that are still being used either by me or my parents. My 10 year old PC, I'm using as a plex server can use modern USB 2 peripherals, has gigabit Ethernet that takes full advantage of my gigabit internet, runs a modern OS (Windows 10), etc. It has a 1920x1200 display. It has 4Gb RAM but can be upgraded to 8. 10 years later, most consumer PCs come with 8GB.
Now in 2008, my Gateway Solo from 1998 with an 800x600 display, 16Mb RAM, no USB, and a 4GB hard drive would have been useless. It definitely couldn't run modern software.
But going back to iPads. Compare the longevity of the iPad in 2010 running iOS 5 with a 2007 iPod Touch that came out 4 years earlier. On the other end, compare the longevity of an iPad 2 that got upgraded from iOS 5 to iOS 9 to the first gen that only got upgraded from iOS 3 to iOS 5. I fully expect to see the usefulness of mobile devices - at least on the Apple side where you actually get OS updates to continuously lengthen.
And you'll notice that I corrected the statement from my first post, in the post that you replied to.
> As I said in another post, comparing the longevity of a mobile device in its first decade to a PC is Apples and Oranges.
Where in this thread have I compared the longevity of a mobile device to a PC? If you'd like, I'll add a device comparison. My 40 year old Atari 2600 (from the first decade of home gaming systems) still sees use, and works as well as it ever did.
Time becomes much more of a factor when we rely on constant 3rd party maintenance (app stores, online services, and so on). The age of the device category is less pertinent than how much it relies on off-device services to provide functionality.
> Now in 2008, my Gateway Solo from 1998 with an 800x600 display, 16Mb RAM, no USB, and a 4GB hard drive would have been useless. It definitely couldn't run modern software.
A couple things here. First, I hope you didn't spend much for that computer. Mine at the time had 6x the RAM, USB, and double the hard drive space. Second, I don't see why it would need to run modern software, for the sake of comparison. I'm not asking the iPod to run modern software, I'm asking it to provide the capabilities that it did when I bought it, which it can't, due to excessive reliance on an app store that refuses to carry older software and other 3rd party services that like to move forward in incompatible ways.
She was not given the option to download an older version compatible with iOS 10 and the device is old enough that it does not support iOS 11.
Can I:
1. Download iOS program binary
2. Install said iOS binary
3. Inspect files copied on by installing binary
4. Modify said files
Apple.
Apple still makes an older version of iTunes available.
A daily (?) annoying prompt to update the OS that can't be permanently banished isn't technically a "forced" update, but it's a clear degradation of usability.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they do it for battery replacements as well.
In practice they do. I recently deleted a timelapse app from my new phone (se) because the app wouldn't work with the new update. That may not be the best airtight example as the new OS update I did 'choose' to upgrade to which did somehow break the app, and the creator didn't release an updated version for the new OS, but in a real world scenario are you going to discontinue OS updates on a device you purchased months earlier for a few apps? Meanwhile there's decade old computers running windows xp that have no problems starting photoshop 7.0. There's also this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH1BKPSGcxQ showing Windows upgrades from earliest versions to newest and software like excel being compatible from earliest versions onward.
Under the old desktop upgrade model it's easier to run an unmaintained OS, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.
Edit: Obviously running a lightweight linux distro is an option for the more technically minded, and it would be great to see projects like https://www.postmarketos.org become more widespread for extending the life of tablet and phone hardware.
[1] https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/14223/windows-xp-en...
[2] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search?alpha=W...
If I chose to put Windows 10 on my 9 year old desktop, it'd run better than Windows 10 on the laptop I bought a year ago as a netbook-style machine. Anything that can run Windows 7 well can run Windows 10 well, and machines that would be well-suited to Windows 7 weren't uncommon a decade ago.
But that's all beside the point. The point is that having a single source for software to run on a piece of hardware, and not having control over access to your software, puts a hard upper limit on how long a device will be useful. It's more practical to do something useful on the 18 year old Windows 98 machine I've got at home than my iPod Touch that's half that age. My Android tablet is just a couple of years younger; it's still a useful device because I can keep around backups of apks, download software from project pages, or add one of several app stores that still provide working software.
Apple does not, but vendors of networked apps often do in practice (as they don't want to maintain backcompat APIs on the server side). So, you may be perfectly happy with iOS7 on your iPad2, but one day your Skype just stops working, and it demands an update to its newest version - which in turn requires a modern iOS, installing which will effectively brick your tablet. This way, little by little, your tablet's functionality is taken away from you.