The class-action lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of California for San Diego, mentions the following in one of its points:
Even though Apple has actual knowledge of thousands of complaints from iPhone 3G/3GS consumers, Apple does not allow for those same users/consumers of third generation devices to download and re-install earlier and optimised iOS3.x operating system without resorting to ‘hacker’ tactics that will void Apple warranties and violate iPhone user agreements
She’s right. This is something consumers and businesses expect. You can easily downgrade a Mac or PC computer. It’s actually a must, in case something goes wrong with the new OS.
No technical excuses
In iOS it’s technically possible, as demonstrated by the manual technique that restores the iPhone 3G to the previous version of iOS. Even while the radio baseband software – which controls the phone’s communication with the cellular network – can’t get downgraded, there are no technical problems with downgrading the iPhone’s operating system itself.
So, why doesn’t Apple allow users to easily downgrade their iOS devices? For Apple – and developers – having everyone on the latest version of the operating system makes sense. It’s one target to test and one OS to maintain. It makes things easier for them, cheaper.
But for consumers, that’s not the case. If a consumer feels that a new version of the operating system doesn’t deliver the performance and features that they were experiencing before the upgrade, they should be able to get back to the previous version. Not with workarounds and technical voodoo, but with the touch of a button. Just like they made the upgrade.
Apple is not that evil
The main point of the lawsuit, which claims that Apple maliciously released an iOS 4 version to cripple the performance of iPhone 3G devices in order to boost sales of the iPhone 4, makes no sense. I doubt anyone at Apple or any other company would even think about doing such a thing. Especially Apple, who can’t barely cope up with the demand for their newly released mobile phones.
In any case, the iPhone 3G’s iOS 4 performance problems – which I experienced myself – could be a product of incompetency. Or lack of testing. Or maybe lack of respect for users of older products. But no, not malice or conspiracy theories to sell more handsets. [Free Republic via Ars Technica]
Lozza
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 10:01 AMI disagree. i think it IS done on purpose. When i first got my 3G it was great. and as the 3gs, and 4 came out, with every update i kept getting more and more issues. running slow, crashing, no service etc. smart way for them to get me to upgrade, cause well it worked, as it rendered my 3g useless.
matt
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 10:39 AMlol, I’m sorry, ‘lack of respect for older users’ is basically the same thing…
and also, lets consider the alternative… if they aren’t being evil, then I guess its just down to dumb incompetence…
I think I would actually prefer them to be evil than incompetent.
because lets remember, the simplest solution to this downgrade request problem would simply be to MAKE AN UPDATE THAT ISN’T WORSE THAN THE ONE THAT PRECEDES IT!!!
I mean HOW HARD is that for “the most valuable” tech company?
evilness or incompetence… fact of the matter is I’d never buy one if that’s the type of treatment you get…
and there is something to be said for Apple making the product DEMONSTRABLY WORSE than when people bought it, and not allowing them to go back to the way it was when they purchased it… they purchased a phone that worked… not one that was slow as all shit. now sure, products inevitably break over time, and if it’s out of warranty, then too bad… But I think when it has been broken by Apple, due to negligence… there is something in that.
OzHuski
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 11:19 AMWell said Sir.
Gareth
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 12:23 PMI think it actually has the unintended consequence that many people would go “f**k Apple”, I’m getting an android.
Rick
Friday, November 5, 2010 at 9:35 PMI agree that a consequence of various things, such as this has & will probably hurt Apple’s bottom line. I’m bailing for WP7 personally.
rocket
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 1:01 PMAt the end of the day, Apple pretty much only supports a single prior hardware generation of phones, so it’s not like they have multiple platforms to contend with. To me that’s a telling measure of where their customer priorities lie: if we don’t optimise new OS’s for older hardware, maybe customers will buy our new phones instead.
Steve
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 2:22 PMThere’s no reason the 3G can’t run iOS 4. Hacks have proven to be perfectly possible. Don’t be naive. Apple’s restricting updates on the 3G to push people towards their newer products.
They do this with their chargers all the time, artificially modifying with them to make sure each is incompatible with the newest device. Again, there’s absolutely NO REASON for your new phone to not charge from your older plug.
It also costs very little (almost nothing) to release an iOS update for older devices. It’s not as bad as their charging for first gen iPod touch updates, but still…
And not using a big Phoenix Wright-style “OBJECTION!” in that pic is kind of a wasted opportunity.
ozoneocean
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 2:43 PMIt’s nothing short of bizarre that is has happened to 3G iphones- Unlike something like Android, it must be amazingly simple to optimise the new versions of iOS to work perfectly on older phones since they don’t have to test them on multiple different models and configurations… And yet they still had serious issues? Sorry, but that doesn’t compute. If it wasn’t malicious then it was criminally negligent. They need to be penalised for costing owners of these phones severe inconvenience.
billybob
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 9:57 PM/me got his Froyo update on HTC Desire
/me launch benchmark to see if changes anything
/me realize his phone works twice better after upgrade
/me: “sorry, what was that fuss about iPhone 3G or 3GS ???”
/me believe an upgrade should be a blessing and not a curse
Joshua Ehmann
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 11:36 PMtheres no conspiracy? yeah right…
do the apps ive purchased for my iphone mean if i did switch to an android based phone i could download them for free? nope. im stuck.
does upgrading my iphone 3g ( thats JUST come out of contract) with the new iOS make it better? nope it makes it slower. im stuck.
howabout all those apps and games ive purchased? can i still use them? if im carefull and dont update them, and some just wont fuction without the 4′s ios. once again im stuck.
all apps purchased on an earlier iOs should HAVE to be maintained to work with that generations OS.
“hey guys, its not a bad thing if i did something bad but i didnt think it would be bad at the time right?”
BS