For well over a year, Apple has required that updated as well as new apps on the App Store, the only means by which to put apps on an iPhone/iPad that is not jailbroken, and now the company looks as if it’s finally serious about it by notifying developers that iOS 10 will tell users that using a detected 32-bit app could affect the overall performance of their iPhone or iPad.
iOS 10 should but an end to ignoring Apple’s standards
For a company that is as totalitarian about what can live on its devices even when they have already been purchased by customers, Apple has been fairly lenient with developers after telling them last June that only 64-bit compatible apps would be permitted on the App Store. I’m writing this from an iMac with the U.S. Open playing on Macbook Pro but I would never by an iPad as I prefer to load MY devices with my media not solely things purchased from iTunes.
Apple announced this week that non-compliant apps would come with a pop-up warning that reads, “Using (this app) may affect overall system performance” when iOS 10 detects their presence.
You can understand why Apple has been a bit lenient with developers as they make money off of them, but clearly the company doesn’t want to see the iPhone 7 and other devices slowed down when iOS 10 is released. Given the initial successes of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6 Plus, those sales fizzled and dropped for the first time in the history of the iPhone in any iteration.
The warning started this week with the first beta release of iOS 10 and will continue when the final release comes in September.
Apple was really the first to introduce 64-bit devices when it released the iPhone 5s in 2013. Every device since has featured a 64-bit processor.
Somewhat ironically, while some devices won’t run iOS 10, three with 32-bit processors will be able to upgrade to iOS 10: iPhone 5c released in 2013 has a 32-bit A6 processor, the iPhone 5 launched in 2012 uses the same CPU, and the 4th generation iPad features a 32-bit A6X chip.
Again, somewhat ironically, you can still run these apps after acknowledging the warning.