With Apple anticipated to unveil its lineup of next-generation working programs throughout subsequent week’s Worldwide Builders Convention (WWDC), we’ll be listening to extra about iOS 17 very quickly. The brand new launch is anticipated to pack in some good efficiency and stability enhancements, however we’re anticipating just a few different nice surprises too.
Rumors counsel a number of quality-of-life enhancements will are available iOS 17, together with a Management Middle redesign and an up to date Lock Display screen expertise, but it surely appears to be like like many of the focus will nonetheless be on making this a “tuneup” launch — a type of iOS updates that Apple pushes out each few years that’s gentle on groundbreaking new options and heavy on sprucing up what’s already there.
The final time Apple took a beat to scrub issues up was with iOS 12 in 2018, so it’s honest to say we’re due for one more one. That’s to not say iOS 12 didn’t add some thrilling new options, however what got here paled compared to the iOS 11 and iOS 13 releases that it was sandwiched in between.
Nonetheless, maybe the very best information about these tuneup releases is that they not solely proceed to help all the identical iPhone fashions because the prior model, however they typically enhance the efficiency of these older iPhone fashions.
The longevity of the iPhone in terms of software program updates is already the envy of Android customers all over the place. The iPhone 6s, launched when Barack Obama was President and Star Wars: The Pressure Awakens was hitting theatres, may nonetheless be up to date to iOS 15 when it was launched in 2021.
After all, Apple can’t help older iPhones ceaselessly, and final 12 months’s launch of iOS 16 spelled the top of the highway for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Nonetheless, six years of updates is a actually good run. By comparability, Google and Samsung have solely begun promising 3–4 years of software program updates for his or her flagship telephones over the previous couple of years.
Despite the fact that some prefer to accuse Apple of “deliberate obsolesce,” if you have a look at the historical past of its iOS updates and supported iPhone fashions, it turns into clear that nothing might be farther from the reality. Apple tries to help as many older gadgets as attainable for so long as attainable. Solely seven of the 12 iOS releases which have come out since 2010 have dropped help for any older iPhone fashions.
That’s gotten even higher lately as iPhone efficiency specs have begun to plateau. iOS 16 was the exception, not the rule. Whereas iOS 13 did depart the 2014 iPhone 6 behind on iOS 12, the following iOS 14 and iOS 15 releases left no iPhone behind.
If latest reviews are true — and now we have each purpose to consider they’re — iOS 17 will resume this pattern, with help for all the identical iPhone fashions which might be able to operating iOS 16.
There was some controversy about this earlier this 12 months, with conflicting reviews about whether or not the 2017-era iPhone X and iPhone 8 lineups would proceed to be supported by iOS 17 attributable to their older A11 chips. Nonetheless, the leaker who got here down on the aspect of hope, who glided by the Twitter deal with of @analyst941, turned out to have had a really dependable inside supply — a sibling who reportedly labored straight with Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior VP of Software program Engineering.
Sadly, the leaker’s sister paid a really excessive value for disclosing this data when the duo discovered themselves caught up in a sting operation the place Apple fed a number of staff false data in an effort to plug the holes.
Nonetheless, in contrast to most leaks, we realized that the supply for this one was very well-placed inside Apple and, due to this fact, seemingly had dependable data till they got here beneath suspicion. Analyst941 shared quite a few particulars about iOS 17 that, if true, may have solely come from inside Apple’s software program engineering workforce — and the tidbit about iPhone compatibility was one of many very first issues disclosed, which made it unlikely to be data that Apple had planted to catch the leaker.
In addition to, it additionally is smart that Apple will proceed supporting the A11-equipped 2018 iPhone fashions.
Firstly, Apple minimize deeper with iOS 16 final 12 months, leaving not solely the 2015 iPhone 6s behind on iOS 15 but in addition the 2016 iPhone 7. Had that latter one not been minimize then, we seemingly would have seen it dropped off the record this 12 months, however clearly, Apple determined it was higher to get it throughout with in a single launch. That makes it much less seemingly the 2017 fashions are able to be minimize simply but.
Additional, the A11 was the primary of Apple’s “Bionic” collection chips, introducing the corporate’s Neural Engine expertise. The iPhone 7 ran the older A10 Fusion chip, which had a special structure. Though the A11 solely had a two-core Neural Engine, which leaves it out of a number of the extra subtle machine studying options, it’s nonetheless a part of the Bionic collection of chips, which persists in in the present day’s A16 and can undoubtedly be the structure and branding of the A17 that may arrive in at the least some members of the iPhone 15 household.
The iPhone X was additionally the machine that launched the primary edge-to-edge display and Face ID expertise. It’s turn into one thing of a traditional, and whereas Apple isn’t a very nostalgic firm, there are seemingly nonetheless these inside its partitions who wouldn’t wish to see that mannequin put out to pasture any prior to completely needed. Whereas its day will undoubtedly come, that isn’t more likely to be the case in iOS 17.
After all, we don’t know for certain till Apple formally pronounces iOS 17 subsequent week, however based mostly on the corporate’s historical past, we predict it’s a really protected guess that iOS 17 won’t solely proceed to help the older A11-equipped iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus, but it surely may even make them run quicker and higher than they do on iOS 16.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]