App Store Bit Rot

http://www.undsoversum.de/2012/09/18/app-store-bit-rot/

by kronawetter • 14 years ago

127 53 14 years ago

I doubt this will ever be fixed by Apple because this issue affects so few people. The overwhelming majority of iOS devices in active use can run at least iOS 4.3[1], and I’d guess that the users that don’t upgrade to the latest iOS version are the same ones that don’t update all their apps through iTunes. I’m guessing that the number of users who update their apps through iTunes but don’t update their device (or can’t update their device) to the latest iOS is very small.

I wasn’t particularly thrilled that I was forced to drop support for iOS 3, but looking at the number of active users of my app[2] that were running the current version, I saw that none of them were on iOS 3. This was probably the right time for Apple to drop support for < iOS 4.3.

[1] I don’t have stats to back this up, but seeing that iPhone 3GS is the lowest hardware to support iOS 4.3, and they’ve sold way more devices since then than original iPhone and iPhone 3G, I think it’s fair to assume that the vast majority of iOS devices in use can run iOS 4.3 or later.

[2] https://ironmoney.com/ios/

egb4• 14 years ago

While [1] may be true, many people never upgrade their iOS.

My stats are such that 8% of my users are using < iOS 4.3, and of that 8% slice almost 3/4 (or 6% of my total users) _could_ update to something newer, but they're happily running old iOSes.

If I were to cut them off, would that magically make them upgrade? I don't think so. They'd just be bummed that their apps stopped working.

rendezvouscp2• 14 years ago

I don’t think that would magically make them upgrade either, although they might be willing to do so since the only thing we can do is not upgrade our apps to support them.

Obviously this will vary from app to app, but I’m surprised that you have such a high number of users with an older version of iOS. Is that across all of your apps/games?

cube132• 14 years ago

Has that number changed much over time? The iPhone 3 hasn't been for sale for over 2 years at this point, so I'm curious if you're seeing the number go down at all.

MattRogish• 14 years ago

"If I were to cut them off, would that magically make them upgrade? I don't think so. They'd just be bummed that their apps stopped working."

Remember, the problem listed will only take effect if:

* Their iTunes has downloaded the latest version, and

* They have to restore their device from a backup

Doing an update to your app to remove iOS3 compat won't remove it from folks' devices, iTunes won't push it to their device, and it won't magically stop working. Seems like such a small thing to worry about, especially given all the cool things in iOS4 and above...

roc• 14 years ago

It's worth remembering that many, many people experienced horrible performance problems on the iPhone3G under iOS4.

It's entirely possible that your 8% of users avoiding 4.3 despite its availability aren't tech-newbs, but are making a conscious effort to not update their OS.

In which case nothing short of "finally decided to get a new phone" is going to get them to upgrade.

clarky072• 14 years ago

What time period are these stats from? Last week, last month, last year? I have <4% of my users on anything < iOS 5. I only have 1.3% using < 4.3 over the last month.

coin• 14 years ago

Many people can't upgrade their iOS because Apple doesn't support it. Example: my second generation iPod Touch is stuck at iOS 4.2.

tobyjsullivan3• 14 years ago

Just reading between the lines on your post: don't think that iOS < 4.3 implies iOS 3. I think you'll find a much higher per centage of iOS 4.2.1 users. This the latest version supported by iPhone 3G.

egb more or less addressed this but I thought I'd make it explicit.

egb4• 14 years ago

4.2.1 is indeed the largest piece (exactly 50%) of my users that are on iOS less than 4.3, with other versions sprinkled in. And as it happens, looking by device, 87% of my <4.3 users are on 3G devices.

fierarul• 14 years ago

I don't see how there are so few people given the success that iPhone has been: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IPhone_sales_per_quarter_s...

A 3-5 year old phone should do the job just fine.

I gave an old iPod Touch 2nd gen to a relative and was super annoyed that a 2 year old device doesn't have Skype anymore. I'm pretty sure it had at some point but since the device is stuck on iOS 4.2.1 I can't find the old Skype versions on AppStore anymore.

conrey• 14 years ago

The problem that Apple is avoiding though is having a bad experience because you have an outdated OS - this occurs on the desktop with OSX as well. Because older OS won't handle newer software gracefully they just "Force" the upgrade. Not saying I agree with it, but that's the assumed policy.

eridius2• 14 years ago

The last time I restored an iCloud backup, it actually redownloaded older versions of the apps (specifically, the versions I had installed when I made the backup). So I think the answer is "use iCloud backups".

jolan• 14 years ago

iOS 4.x doesn't have iCloud.

eridius2• 14 years ago

Huh, guess it's been a while since I used that. Oh well.

Splines• 14 years ago

I've considered using source control on my IPAs just in case I want to roll-back an app. It's happened a few times, like when developers break compatibility, or when they introduce ads and/or IAP, or sometimes I just don't like an update.

nnnnni3• 14 years ago

I ONLY update programs through iTunes. When it sticks the old version in my trash, I grab the ipa and put it into my "backups" directory.

I've known way too many people who have been burned by things like "ugh, this version doesn't work on my phone, but I have no way to get the previous version!"

Also, there are cases where a feature is removed from the new version, thus making it useless. My system helps fight against that.

fotbr2• 14 years ago

That's exactly the method I use as well. There's one app that I use that an old update adds advertising, and breaks most of the functionality. Based on the reviews, further updates do nothing to improve the broken bits, and made the advertising even more intrusive.

I see no need to update a perfectly functional piece of free software and turn into a crippled piece of ad-delivery-software.

If I get careless and hit the "update all" button, or get click-happy in the list of updates, the old version ends up in the trash can. If I still don't catch it and dump the trash, I can still go back because I've got the old ipa sitting in my "Old IOS Apps" directory.

gurkendoktor2• 14 years ago

I am pretty sure that if you update an app on device and sync it with iTunes, iTunes will also put the old app in the trash.

I love to update apps on the iPad - it makes it the easiest to see all changes at a glance.

And I don't love how I cannot get rid of the update badge on the App Store app. Now I have to remember how many of these are updates I don't want...

DRAGONERO• 14 years ago

My iPhone 3GS is dying, I bet there are a lot of iPhone 3G customers that are either changing phone because their beloved iPhone does not work anymore or are using their iPhone so lightly that the only application they use is Safari (no apps installed). So I guess there will be no problem at all or the problem will affect a tiny portion of the % of people that have an iPhone 3G that it will just not matter at all.

jyap• 14 years ago

This isn't Apple's style. Apple has planned obsolescence.

The other thing is that there has been over the air upgrades since iOS 5, so people do upgrade their iOS version.

From my multiple app stats (thousands of users), less than 2 percent run iOS < 4.3.

98% run iOS 5 or higher.

glenntzke• 14 years ago

Also note that the iPhone4 is now offered for free with most upgrade plans. If you have a 3G still kicking around on a regular plan, the upgrade path to (at least) the 4 isn't painful.

tobyjsullivan3• 14 years ago

It's not free per-se. It requires a 2-year commitment (3 years here in Canada). Agreeing to a 2-year commitment to get a 2-year-old phone is probably a bad deal (especially given Apple's lack of support for the less-than-4-year-old iPhone 3G). I don't expect a high percentage of people to go for that one.

sergeo2• 14 years ago

The idea that Xcode 4.5 is required for iPhone 5 development is incorrect. If iOS3-4 & ARM6 support is needed, Xcode 4.4 could be used (at least for now) to build iOS3-5 apps. The trigger to make an app use full iPhone5 screen is to include Default-568h@2x.png into the project. Of course, you'll need to modify screens to adjust layout depending on screen size.

Having said that, Apple typically pushes everyone to upgrade to the latest Xcode, and OS/X, so I'd expect that Xcode 4.5 will be required rather sooner than later. IMHO, this is a good thing in the long run, better than supporting multiple generations of hardware and software - it's better for the ecosystem. Even though about 8% of our users are on <iOS4.3, we would be fine when Apple drops them - they would provide us more users on iOS6+.

xsmasher• 14 years ago

> The trigger to make an app use full iPhone5 screen is to include Default-568h@2x.png into the project.

Have you tested that without using the new SDK, or is that a theory? The Default-568h@2x.png might be required-but-not-sufficient.

sergeo2• 14 years ago

Yes, it's been confirmed to be sufficient.

As an additional evidence, one of our apps that included this file received "required screenshot is missing" iTunes Connect status upon update upload today, and it had all regular screenshots, but not iPhone5 ones.

gurkendoktor2• 14 years ago

> Even though about 8% of our users are on <iOS4.3, we would be fine when Apple drops them

I see that this is a no-brainer for new apps.

But anyone writing (typically free) iOS apps as a service will have a hard time telling their clients "this is your app maintainer, I'll lock 8% of your existing users out, ok?".

This is a huge PITA in the making. :(

clarky072• 14 years ago

At this point, I have <2% users on something < iOS 4.3. I have 0 users < iOS 4.0. There are a few users out there I'm sure, but it's so small of a number as to not be worth supporting as either Apple or as an app developer. 95+% are on 5.0 or better, and I'd be willing to bet >80% will be on iOS 6 in the next month. Supporting iOS 3 at this point is silly.

nicholassmith• 14 years ago

When developing anything for any platform as developers we all make a conscious decision about our cutoff points. Do we attempt to support as low as we can go? Do we get progressive? They're all tradeoffs that we have to make, and have to decide on.

Apple might not be making it easy to stick with a low as we can go but it's still doable, so I'd guess the developers have made the decision and taken the tradeoffs.

31reasons• 14 years ago

Apple is not just in the business of selling iPhone, its in the business of selling New iPhone to old customers. It makes sense to keep reminding your old customers that "hey you got old phone, you need to upgrade your hardware to use this new awesome app".

xer0x• 14 years ago

Apple does not support devices older than 24 months. It has always been this way. I say this because we've seen this pattern with older iPhones and iPod Touches losing features and functionality since the very beginning.

For example, I was very disappointed when Apple made changes to iOS 2 so that the original iPod Touch couldn't change it's volume. The newer iPhones and iPod's had hardware volume controls so iOS removed the easy volume adjustments from the software. The iTunes app could still adjust volume and that must've been good enough, because I didn't see many people complaining.

The customer experience matters a lot to Apple, and they are awesome at it. However, I agree with that article and I would love if they started also maintaining the experience of their older existing customers.

zachinglis• 14 years ago

As much as I agree that Apple should keep support, I am not upset they're not keeping support for a phone from 2007. We live in an age where most people replace there phone every 1-2 years. 3 at a very big stretch.

While you may not replace your phone that often, a very large majority do.

quink3• 14 years ago

> I am not upset they're not keeping support for a phone from 2007.

Except that sales of the iPhone 3G seized... on June 4th, 2010. Of the iPod Touch 2G, with the same CPU, on September 1st, 2010.

This isn't about not keeping support, this is a bit more fundamental. This is about no longer being able to get things onto devices that were sold barely two years ago any longer. And possibly not even being able to compile things for those devices.

Two years. That's the lifespan Apple gives your devices. Two years and a few weeks and it's obsolete.

The iPad 1 was introduced on April 3rd, 2010. And that was the Wi-Fi version, in the US only. The last update for the OS it'll ever get was released on May 7th, 2012.

Two years, plus a few weeks, and it's obsolete.

Two years is how long Apple plans for your device to last before they want you to buy a new one.

----

In fact, if you bought a brand new iPod touch 2G from Apple, on September 1st, 2010, you got your last OS update on November 22nd 2010. That's less than three months. And people say that Android doesn't support its devices with updates...

moepstar• 14 years ago

While i agree that (planned) obsolescence is a bad thing, Apple/iOS is still in a way better shape than Android where some devices never ran a current-gen version of the OS and never saw an update to a new major version.

http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphan...

rimantas• 14 years ago

Your nice list is missing one data point: iPhone 3GS, released in 2009 will get the latest version of iOS (albeit not all features are supported).

89a• 14 years ago

Also no way to stop an app from appearing in the update list even if you consider the latest update a downgrade

App Store Bit Rot

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