

Ask HN: Is it a mistake to launch an app that only supports iOS 5.x? - patpng

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9094584/launching-an-app-for-ios-5-and-beyond-only-a-mistake
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joeld42
Here's the usage numbers by version for the last month on my Planet
Minesweeper game:

<http://imgur.com/Mu7Tp>

It's a universal app, so this covers iPhone and iPad. Over 80% of users are on
5.0 or above.

My take on this is that if there is any iOS 5 feature that would make your
life easier and save you time, or make your user's experience better, then go
for it and don't worry about backwards compatibility. But if there's nothing
specific drawing you to iOS5 go ahead and support old versions, it's not that
much extra work to test and support older versions.

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shadesandcolour
Here's one thing to think about: What does you app do? If it's something that
is going to run poorly on older devices, the ones that aren't upgradable past
iOS 4, then I would say only target iOS 5. More people are updgrading their
devices every day and that means they're getting the latest version of the
operating system. If you'd like to rely on rumor, think of all the people that
will be upgrading after WWDC in a few weeks.

I say go for it, you'll have a large enough install space as it is with iOS 5,
I wouldn't worry about your lost users.

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xackpot
I launched my app (Finderous) only on ios 5.x becuase 1\. I didn't want to
support an OS that is already shrinking in usage. 2\. It's just a matter of
time people will upgrade to IOS 5.x as it is free. 3\. I learnt ios
programming only on 5.x 4\. I found it time consuming to learn pre 5.x
programming once I started with 5.x :)

~~~
v0cab
Not everyone can upgrade to iOS 5.x for free. I had a first-gen iPod which
couldn't upgrade to 4.x. The older devices have limitations on which iOS
upgrades they can get.

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Jemm
My guess is that the numbers will change significantly in the next few days as
a large percentage of users holding on to 4.3.3 are doing so because it was
the last easy untethered jailbreak. Now that 5.1.1 is jailbreakable many users
will upgrade.

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brandoncordell
There are some pretty big apps that are iOS5+. Instapaper for example.

