iOS 8 Adoption Stalls at 47% of Users After Three Weeks
techcrunch.com
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What really pisses me off is the attitude of app developers to only support the newest version of iOS. I'd upgraded from iOS 6 to 7 simply because I needed HipChat and FourSquare for professional reasons, and both companies had completely dropped support for iOS 6. And then upgraded to iOS 8 because I know the same thing is going to happen again. I don't criticize Apple so much for creating new iOS versions that require greater processor power -- I criticize the app developers which force us to upgrade to OS's our phones can't support. And now I basically need to drop $500 to buy a new phone I shouldn't need, just for my phone's interface to feel even minimally responsive again. Ugh.
Tweetbot crashes like mad, though, but it was designed for iOS 5-6 anyway.
Settings->General->Accessibility->Increase Contrast Set to On
Settings->General->Accessibility->Reduce Motion Set to On
> I don't criticize Apple so much for creating new iOS versions that require greater processor power
I think you'd be in the right to criticize this as well, by upgrading to an OS that requires more processing power, you get a lowered battery life and a less responsive phone overall.
* you need to maintain a stable of test devices on all iOS versions
* it's time-consuming to support legacy OS versions
* it leads to more support
* it has dubious economic value
Also, to be angry at app developers because they act rationally seems misplaced. Particularly with HipChat, you want them to support what exactly... every version of OSX, iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux? Because they get pretty close.
Why don't you just not update your phone, or your apps? Did FourSquare and HipChat force you to update the app, with some sort of blocking in-app pop-up?
p.s. We do support 2-3 versions for our apps, but that's a practical matter for us.
Supporting the current version and the most recent version doesn't feel like the biggest imposition. As a web developer we've adopted it - we just phased out iOS6 support now that we're looking at iOS8. And there aren't actually that many differences between 7 and 8 - especially compared to 6 and 7. What iOS8-specific SDK features are developers using that means they absolutely have to only target iOS8?
Apple developers can't roll back the OS version, and need to have at least one 4/4s, one 5/5s, and one iPad for each OS they would like to support. Let alone the new screen fragmentation.
The inability to roll back iOS is inconvenient for customers, but it's a HUGE middle-finger to developers. Customer are caught between "don't update a few of my apps" while we are caught between "don't support a number of new users" and "spend a lot of extra time and effort"
Why? You can fire up an iOS Simulator just as easily for web developer as you can native development. The same issues affect both. In neither case would I suggest relying on simulated versions of devices - I've been caught out by too many touch event oddities in the past.
And I remember reading about some feature where Apple would let you download a previous version of an app that was compatible with your iOS. But that option definitely was not there with HipChat or FourSquare. In fact, I never saw it for any app anywhere, the whole time I was on iOS 6.
You are right though, painful was the best way to describe it. Even plugging in power there was a noticeable pause before the phone would acknowledge it and some applications seemed just moribund.
In the end I am quite pleased with the 6, I do think iOS8 is a step back in some instances but the hardware is able to out power the designers dreams and programmers faults. Now if I can find a case to remove the slipperiness of this new phone
- Hardware DRM is used to block installation of old OS releases, mandating that developers maintain a stable of old hardware that they never reinstall just to be able to test on iOS < $current.
- Critical security updates aren't provided for previous major releases if the device can run the next major release. iOS 6 was left with completely broken SSL certificate validation, and the last iOS 7 release also has known bugs; the only way to get a fix is to upgrade to iOS 8.
- Apple rapidly deprecates and removes old SDKs and toolchains from Xcode long before the devices supported by them have reached their end of useful life -- for example, dropping armv6 entirely due to clang having a litany of armv6 codegen bugs. The standard test framework -- OCUnit -- was deprecated in favor of an almost identical (but API incompatible) XCTest framework ... but Apple didn't bother to port XCTest for iOS 6 and (iirc) 7.0 devices, leaving developers with the choice of breaking testing on previous releases, or disabling/ignoring deprecation warnings and just being forced to refactor all their tests at an unexpected future date when Apple will drop OCUnit without additional warning.
Apple used to have a great backwards compatibility story; now, they're shoving both developers and users as hard as they can, and leaving an enormous amount of prematurely useless hardware and artificially enforced codebase bitrot.
What's worse is that Apple's pace is producing some seriously broken, buggy OS releases. Apple needs to return to the fundamentals of driving adoption by providing the best possible platform, rather than twisting and shimmying as fast as they can to stay just out of reach of the competition.
I'm baffled that you expect developers to continue developing for outdated OSes, at substantial support and development costs, in exchange for $0-$5.* This is an especially surprising since there's nothing stopping you from continuing to use your working, non-updated version of the app.
Plus, this:
> I don't criticize Apple so much for creating new iOS versions that require greater processor power -- I criticize the app developers which force us to upgrade to OS's our phones can't support.
Directly contradicts your complaint. The reason developers require the newer OS is so that they can support the new APIs Apple has released, without fragmenting their user-base. It's the same rationale as Apple dropping support for older phones, albeit with APIs rather than processors.
*HipChat does actually seem a bit inappropriate in this instance, since it's an SaaS product. Given the amount the user is paying, they really ought to support the last iOS version in addition to the most current.
That's just painful. I didn't even update to iOS 7 on my phone, my girlfriend did and no joke, she literally sold it 40 days later as she couldn't take how slow it was and got a Nexus 5. So I'm still on iOS 6 (and iOS 7 for my iPad). My phone works great, it's quick, and runs the apps for iOS 6 perfectly. But I've also been locked out of getting lots of apps, so I'll be dumping this phone soon while it works just fine, just so I can use basic apps I didn't happen to download in time at a normal framerate.
Plus it just doesn't seem that compelling and upgrade.
Makes one wonder the 16-64-128 gb storage strategy.
I haven't upgraded my iPod and iPad precisely because of the space issue. Looks like I won't be upgrading.
The VM route feels a lot like yak-shaving.
At some point in the past couple of years he wanted a smartphone after seeing all of us using ours for instant messaging, Instagram, etc. and he chose an iPhone specifically because they have a reputation of being user friendly for even the inexperienced user.
His phone recently ran out of space due to the large number of photos he had taken so I advised him to hook it up to his wife's computer and use iTunes to back everything up. He looked at me like I had three eyes. Up until then he had never done this. Everything came over the air and he treated it as a standalone "appliance".
I did my best to walk him through it and stress that he might want to get a Dropbox or Google Drive account for some level of redundant backup since his wife's laptop isn't what I'd call reliable. As far as I know he sort of glossed over when I got to that second part but at least he managed to get his phone working again. It had actually gotten to the point where things stopped working due to lack of available storage.
Back your phone up to iCloud (this is probably the biggest bottleneck if your data doesn't fit into the free storage). If you have a recent backup, you can wipe your phone (Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase all content and settings). That should clear up plenty of space on your device. Then upgrade and restore your backup once it's completed. This is how I upgraded to iOS 7 and 8 without having iTunes installed. But definitely be _sure_ you have a backup.
I think I had to do it for iOS 7 actually. 16GB ain't what it used to be. :)
As these devices are increasingly sold to people who have never plugged them into a PC running iTunes, the storage problem is exacerbated: without being able to dump everything to a (cheap) external drive, users agonize over which memories to delete and many simply balk at the entire process. And this isn't just a problem with updates: people struggle with this during regular use.
So what we have is really two problems: no space to update and no way to simply/effectively/cheaply archive device data. So what is needed are two solutions:
1. Apple needs to reserve storage space for updates. [2]
2. Mobile devices, in general, need a PC-free way to bulk-archive data. Cloud services are great and all, but people are far more likely to walk into a Best Buy and pick up an external drive, than they are to find/vet/pay for Flickr. And even if they're willing to pay for the service, most are not willing to pay the hosting fees for the quantity of digital memories they're creating. And if you can't save everything, you're just back at the same problem of asking people to explicitly cast memories into the void, and they just won't do it. Not happily. Not willingly. And they'll resent every instance where they feel forced.
We're well past the point where the value in this arrangement was obvious.
Why iOS devices, in particular, can't talk directly to Time Capsules (for device backup and a local media archive) is beyond me. It's particularly curious that Apple is ignoring the situation, given that they don't seek to profit from being a cloud provider, and would stand to make a decent chunk of change from putting a Time Capsule (or three) into every iOS home. They could even leverage the AppleTV as yet-another-viewer of this home-archived media and sell a few more of those.
I know it's popular to assume this is all inevitably going "to the cloud". But there's simply too much data being collected. People marvel at how much data is being uploaded to Youtube/Facebook/Instagram/etc. But for every picture or video uploaded to those services, how much data did that one user capture that they didn't upload? And then consider how many users are capturing similar amounts of data but never upload anything.
The growth rate of data capture is far exceeding the growth rate of bandwidth and the affordability of "enough" cloud storage. It's going to be years and years until cloud storage is "there". There's a huge opportunity in the interim.
Beyond iOS, I don't know how every storage vendor doesn't have their own android solution to the problem. Solving this problem can sell an awful lot of hard drives. That you're explicitly selling the safe archive of precious memories is going to mean you can sell a higher number of RAID solutions as well. And the growth rate of captured data means you've got a huge market for selling additional/newer storage devices to your installed base.
[1] Desktop users don't fill multi-terabyte hard drives as often, only inasmuch as they don't connect high quality data capture devices. Hand a person a DSLR or a GoPro and they'll fill every drive they buy. Mobile devices fill more-quickly, more-regularly, largely because they all have high quality cameras built in.
[2] The updates themselves probably should be smaller at this point, but you'd always need room for a full restore anyway. So shrinking the update sizes is really only a bandwidth concern and can't lead to a reduction in the reserved space.
Now, even though this media backup saves in a private folder, I don't use it for anything sensitive like "racy" photos or banking/identity details. Even if I captured such info on my phone, I'd keep it local for a modicum of security but in most cases, I'd imagine that what people are really looking for is a way to keep snapshots and other memories while occasionally freeing up local phone storage.
As a hobbyist photographer I'm well aware of the importance of redundant backups (local, hosted, RAID, etc) but for the typical pile of concert photos and snaps of that awesome dinner you made, I think the ability to automatically back up to a private "cloud" hosting can cover a lot of the casual backup and offloading of phone images and video clips.
Safari launch goes from 1.25 to 2.16 seconds, and I use that all the time. Not worth it, as much as I'd like 3rd party keyboards and 1password integration.
Plus there's the fact that everything is being designed for iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 screens now, so it gets terribly cramped without the extra height. Integrated apps like Music have already been crammed into the 3.5" screen on iOS 7, but 8 only takes more steps toward needing a bigger screen.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/ios-8-on-the-iphone-4s-...
Settings->General->Accessibility->Reduce Motion Set to On
In general, it feels like iOS 7 - slower than 6 but still usable, particularly if you disable background apps to reduce memory pressure.
What is a big deal is screen real-estate: it's not just the apps but also the new predictive text entry. In an app like Tweetbot, the full keyboard now leaves only 3 lines of text visible. Some of the custom keyboards are shorter but you can definitely tell that most developers are now assuming at least the larger iPhone 5 screen height.
On iOS 7 it's already down to two lines of text messages, because it's more important that they tell me the name of who I'm talking to three goddamn times. If Google's trying to help Apple sell more new phones, they're doing a pretty good job of it.
http://i.imgur.com/QHL8FeN.png
Does anybody have GV on iOS 8 with a 4S for comparison? I'm genuinely curious what it does.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sbvsh037htjbq1m/2014-10-07%2014.42...
With word predictions collapsed:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/efvxfw7laib8adl/2014-10-07%2014.42...
So given some consistent amount for OS overhead on every model, the 4S has well under half of the RAM available for running applications. Background apps are killed much more frequently as a result.
Launch time might not matter for newer phones, but it's a huge deal for us. I actually had an experience (on iOS 7) where I couldn't log in to a Google app because switching to Google Authenticator and back caused the first app to unload, and I couldn't get back to the login page before the TOTP code expired.
* APIs that were fine in iOS 7 are now broken on iOS 8 devices (that's the OS I'm talking about, not the SDK). 6 -> 7 contained the biggest UI changes of any release, and on an iOS 7 OS, apps built under iOS 6 still looked like iOS 6 apps. How it should be.
* Developers saying they have to get/renew both iOS and Mac developer programs, and then request a refund for the one they don't want.
* Requiring 5GB for an over-the-air installation, which given how most devices are 16GB, is terrible. There aren't many end-users that would go through iTunes for this.
* Shocking performance on 4S and iPad 2. I disagree with allowing users to upgrade on these devices. My iPad 2 was unusable; even swiping on the springboard was dropping frames everywhere. Apps taking 10 seconds to load. That's not a good user experience, keep them on 7.
* Apple silently changing their approval processes (not allowed to authenticate through Safari now - it has to be through a web view, which doesn't handle SSO, and is a lot less secure).
* HealthKit bugs.
* The whole 8.0.1 disaster. I couldn't believe this one.
Compounding the problem -- since getting the iPhone 6, I've noticed something I've almost never noticed before on an iPhone: lag. There are times where it seems there's a huge (like 1 second) delay between touching the screen and a reaction. This is noticeable when scrolling in safari. For that reason alone I would recommend against upgrading until the problem is resolved.
iOS 8 was incredibly buggy so far, with the 8.0.1 update almost bricking phones, and 8.0.2 introducing a lot of bluetooth connectivity issues/wi-fi slowdowns and battery problems. The 5S has a weak battery life as is, I don't need it shrunk to a half day.
e.g. https://isc.sans.edu/forums/diary/iOS+7+1+x+Exploit+Released...
On one hand, nobody wants to buy a shiny new device and find that the software isn't taking advantage of the hardware you paid for in order to preserve performance on older models. On the other hand, the more rapid pace of mobile hardware development and the inability to add inexpensive upgrades can make it seem like you have little choice but to replace the things every couple of years.
It doesn't help that there's no official way to downgrade if your experience is unsatisfactory (no reinstalling XP on that old beater PC because it doesn't have the RAM to run Vista well, etc) and applications quickly start to require the latest version of the OS for program updates.
Once people with recent enough devices are able to enjoy Continuity, Handoff, and fully experience iCloud Drive, then adoption will (I predict) increase; and I believe the "not much difference" statements (which are arguably currently correct) will subside.
I believe Apple could have done well to coordinate a simultaneous launch for Yosemite and iOS 8.
If you haven't upgraded, hold off for a while.
Terrible decision. Why remove camera roll? It's not exactly a tricky thing to support / leave in. The new way of viewing photos is awful. I have no clue on what date or what location I saved / took that one photo I'm looking for.
(Please, Apple, break Safari out into an app that can be updated in the App Store. Oh, and actually update it.)
http://osxdaily.com/2014/09/21/downgrade-ios-8-back-to-ios-7...
Coupled with that, things like the browser, maps, e-mail and keyboard are updated through the Play Store now, not through OS updates. Google have done a pretty great job with this.
They never were accurate because it's mostly not in the users control if/when they upgrade. The carrier has to 'bless' you with the privilege of even being offered an update.
This is one of the reasons I just switched to an iPhone.
> Was this in the Android 2.x era?
Galaxy S3. Galaxy S Relay 4g. Android 4.1/4.0 respectively the day they were bought and the day they were traded in.
Apple's strength is that they provide the hardware and the software so they are responsible for building any new version of iOS with applicable drivers and firmware for each device.
Core apps are one thing but if you want to update to the latest version of Android, you're mostly out of luck without the OEM's involvement. Third parties regularly work on building current versions for all manner of devices as soon as Google publishes the source but without driver source from the maker of the actual chips and other hardware, they're left cobbling together unoptimized drivers for important things like the cellular radio or the camera or reverse engineering their own. If it was just a matter of carrier interference, there would be a "vanilla" build available for every device shortly after release.