My experience with their planned obsolescence has been with iOS exclusively.
Ah, now I see.
Their regular computer OS is no worse than Microsoft or anyone else.
Agreed, but I think they’ve been overall much better than MS (in this regard) if we are to be factual there.
Apple’s own development tools erase previous versions, forcing app developers to abandoning old, working apps.
Agreed. That has been annoying for devs (including me). But I do think there has been (perhaps) in some cases some advantages to the consumer in the gains in performance, battery life, security, etc. by optimizing code for advances in hardware and forcing devs to comply.
Similarly, I see people whine about the battery not being easily removed in the extremely light and thin MacBook Airs. But when other manufactures try to match Apple, they end up having to do the same thing. In other words, except in cases when Apple and others are purposefully being dicks, it’s often a “give and take” situation when it comes to legacy support.
Here’s a rant from a developer who details the issue:
Support for older devices running iOS 4.2.1 + Planned Obsolescence Rant « KanjiBox Dev Blog
It’s good to note that the dev writes that Apple isn’t worse than others in this regard. But, like you and the dev, I wish they’d rise above others.
I’m not saying Apple is alone in this
I wish they were.
