September 2012 saw the introduction of the iPhone 5 and it was the last 32-bit iPhone made as the following year the iPhone 5s switched to a 64-bit CPU. Now, with the next iPhone on the horizon and Apple already cutting the head off of 32-bit apps. There are rumors that Apple will drop support for the now 5-year old iPhone 5. Twitter user @zmclearan was poking around the latest iOS 10.3.2 beta when he noticed the lack of 32-bit devices in the list. To be clear, this is beta software so it’s very possible Apple could add 32-bit devices into the actual live push of the software, but it does point to the future.
@TheApplePost Strange thing I found in iOS 10.3.2 beta, lack of 32bit devices pic.twitter.com/e15ZKk8z8N
— Zeph McLearan (@zmclearan) March 29, 2017
As Matthew Dunn from news.com.au points out, Apple making a move of this magnitude on a minor update to iOS 10 is a bit odd. Still, whether it happens on iOS 10.3.2 or iOS 11. You can be sure that the 32-bit iPhone 5 will most likely stop being supported at some point in the near future. That doesn’t mean that everyone who owns an iPhone 5 will suddenly have a bricked phone. It just means they’ll no longer have access to updates or security patches.
This is the double-edged sword of technology, as software and hardware continue to advance at such a fast pace. It becomes impossible to maintain old hardware and it simply must fall away from the update cycle. Now, I’m sure the iPhone 5 will continue to function just fine for many users for at least a few more years but it is a good idea to consider that you won’t be as protected due to not having security updates.
It will be interesting to see if Apple does break 32-bit support on iOS 10.3.2 or waits for iOS 11. What do you think of Apple possibly dropping iPhone 5 support? Do you own an iPhone 5? Is this going to push you to finally upgrade? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/mobile-phones/industry-experts-are-worried-apple-is-planning-to-render-the-iphone-5-obsolete/news-story/cf0e4668266d353d97a7590a750da8b3″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: news.com.au[/button]
