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iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes

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Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes

#11

Post by div »

AlisdairSH wrote: post #9
div wrote: post #4

This is great for customers. I wonder if and how having that popup appear will affect people upgrading to the latest and greatest.

Presumably, you'd only see the pop-up if you're running a non-current version of iOS (and need the previous version of the app)?

Correct, what I'm wondering about is how this popup will drive people to realize that "hey, I can upgrade to a new version of iOS".

iOS already has a pretty fast adoption rate for new versions, I wonder if this will make it even better.

Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes

#12

Post by marbletiles »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #8

This is basically Apple themselves showing they don't trust everybody will like iOS7.

It's less that and more that there is now a significant-enough installed base that can't upgrade to the latest OS. There's now a lot of older iPhones and iPods Touch out there that will never get 7.

Knowing that, developers will become increasingly reluctant to leave those customers behind -- and so will keep building for 6 and earlier, and won't use the new 7-only stuff.

This way, devs can immediately go to 7, knowing that customers stuck on older versions will not suddenly be unable to buy or (re)install their apps.

Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes

#13

Post by snom380 »

jaysonelliot wrote: post #6

It's a wonderful half-measure, but also serves to highlight a problem with cloud-based installs that I'm not optimistic will ever go away. When software was distributed physically, the consumer always had the freedom to use any version of an application they liked. Want to run a lightweight version of Word because you don't need all the latest features, or maybe you just hate the new UI? No problem. Did you like some…

As long as you keep a backup of your old app bundles on your computer (for instance using Time Machine) I don't think it's a problem to load old apps. The exception being if some of those apps require online services that are no longer available.

Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes

#14

Post by rickyc091 »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #8

This is basically Apple themselves showing they don't trust everybody will like iOS7.

I think it's also to alleviate the burden for developers to maintain two separate apps. iOS7 design conventions drastically differ from iOS6, so keeping both up to date within the same app will be a pain due to legacy code. If the backend doesn't change, this makes it easier to move forth with a new design.

Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes

#15

Post by objclxt »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #8

This is basically Apple themselves showing they don't trust everybody will like iOS7.

I don't think so - I think it's more that Apple are strongly pushing developers to support iOS 7 only for newer apps. Apple are now suggesting developers should be using auto layout by default (which in iOS 7 saves considerable time), but until now the toolset for working with auto layout was woefully inadequate (...some might say it still is).

It's a lot easier to sell supporting iOS 7 only if all the users who haven't - or can't - upgrade can since have access to older versions of your apps.

Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes

#18

Post by escoz »

chucknelson wrote: post #3

A good thing for consumers, but I wonder how developers feel about this. If they fix some bug that may have been causing big problems on a server-side component, won't they now have to worry about these older versions being used?

If there was a bug in the old version that is not compatible with the latest, there was no way to fix it anyway. This change doesn't solve that issue, but it solves 99% of the cases I deal with, which is old users complaining they can't get the app they bought after a release drops an old iOS version.

Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes

#19

Post by pdpi »

arn wrote: post #10
jaysonelliot wrote: post #6

It's a wonderful half-measure, but also serves to highlight a problem with cloud-based installs that I'm not optimistic will ever go away. When software was distributed physically, the consumer always had the freedom to use any version of an application they liked. Want to run a lightweight version of Word because you don't need all the latest features, or maybe you just hate the new UI? No problem. Did you like some…

This is actually an advantage of cloud distribution. What if you want to run an older version of Word but haven't bought it yet? It can be a pain to find an old copy to buy. Whereas Apple has all the old versions on their servers and can deliver the exact one that will run on your system.

Provided Apple (or whatever other provider) actually distributes the old versions. Somehow, that never seems to be the case.

Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes

#20

Post by jedberg »

div wrote: post #5
chucknelson wrote: post #3

A good thing for consumers, but I wonder how developers feel about this. If they fix some bug that may have been causing big problems on a server-side component, won't they now have to worry about these older versions being used?

That's something you've always had to worry about though. You can't force a user to upgrade, so your best bet is to handle those issues server-side.

> You can't force a user to upgrade

Sure you can. Netflix will sometimes have to do this. The old software just isn't allowed to talk to the server anymore.

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