I read this tonight & I'm not sure I understand the implications (if any). Is this likely to be a problem for developers? Glenn thinks not but he's in vacation mode right now. Here's the question posted to Steve Jobs & his reply (complete with useful email addresses). HERE And a blogger's view HERE Thanks
Well, if anything I think it will be a relief for developers who feel held back trying to maintain a decent framerate on older hardware. That is, you can spend less time optimizing your code for performance on older hardware and more time developing other aspects of your game.
Thats not true -iPod touch 2nd Gen for example has a faster processor than iphone 3G. So from a gaming/performance perspective this step by apple has no foundation http://toucharcade.com/2008/11/23/2nd-generation-ipod-touch-faster-than-iphone/
There are already devices that aren't running the 3.0 firmware. Now some devices won't run the latest OS because they haven't been updated , and some won't run it because they can't be updated. I guess it might mean that there is a greater percentage of devices running old version of the OS in the future. I would guess that games will start using the 4.0 features, and older devices, or devices that haven't upgraded will just miss out on those features.
Link in OP is talking about the iPhone 2G not iPod Touch 2G. iPod 2G is still supported in OS 4.0. Once Apple officially drops the old hardware, most people will move on. There will always be a few stragglers; who doesn't know someone that still has an 10 yr old cell phone because it still works? Those aren't the people that normally buys apps from the App Store anyway. Devs that use the freemium model, free but supported by ads model, or casual games, may continue to support a wide range of hardware, but the platform needs to move on.
I'm guessing by iPhone 2G they mean the 1st generation of iPhones, which only allowed Edge (2G) rather than 3G (may be wrong). Nothing was said about the iPod Touch 2nd Generation, OS 4 will run on 2nd Generations so they are defiantly not dropping that.
This isn't unusual, it's happened on all the smartphone platforms with any history and you'll always find some people who won't upgrade their devices until they break. We were recently contacted by someone who complained that we don't have any Palm OS games for their device - they were using a Palm 3C running POS3.5!!! With iPhone there tends to be a fragmentation of OS when Apple releases a major update and wants to charge for it - it took quite a while for iPod touch owners to upgrade until Apple made the update free. Apple want everyone to have the best experience with their device and if running OS 4 is not going to be pleasant on a 2G iPhone, then they'll exclude it in the same way that Microsoft released minimum hardware specs when they released Vista or when EA announced the minimum specs to run Sims 3. It happens all over the tech and games industry.
Anyone with a 3 year old phone should not expect to be able to run the latest software and os. It's as simple as that. You don't expect a 3 year old laptop to run the latest games and you certainly never had a phone before that was supported and updated as much as Apple has done with the iPhone. If you have a 2G phone, it's time to upgrade this summer. Original iPhone users have hardware that was never meant for an app store, never meant for graphic intensive games, and certainly not meant for multitasking. The 3G has very similar hardware. The reason they won't drop support for the 3G is because it has the biggest install base and they still sell them. The 3G, however, won't be able to multitask. Luckily, people like myself who bought the 3G at launch will be upgrading when 4.0 comes out. Anyone complaining about apple dropping support for the 2g needs a reality check. Companies are giving out 3G iPhones for free and the 3GS will be under $100 this summer. When you're spending thousands on your contract, how can you complain about a $100 phone?
I would agree with you on the 3 year argumentÂ… if it wasn't for the fact that 2G iPod touches were only replaced 6 months ago and, even then, the 8GB iPod touches that Apple are still selling are 2G models.
The iPhone 2G stands for 2G Mobile Internet (or Edge) ... the iPod Touch 2G stands for 2nd Generation ... 2 totally separate things. The iPod Touch 2nd gen (2G) will be 100% fine and will still be supported by Apple.
