
The iPad 1 - creativityhurts
http://www.marco.org/2012/09/30/ipad-1
======
pmjordan
The RAM thing is a nice theory until you consider the 4th gen iPod touch has a
similar number of pixels as iPad 1, also has 256MB of RAM and also gets iOS6
support. They're still selling it now (just about), so that's probably why.

I'm sure with a bit of engineering effort, the memory footprint of iOS could
be drastically reduced. (Hire some game programmers who have worked on console
games! A 1st gen iPad has about 3x as much memory as a Wii.) But let's face
it, that's not going to improve their bottom line, whereas telling everyone to
buy a new iPad every 24 months is.

Still, those 15+ million iPad1 owners aren't going to be all that pleased,
especially those who paid through the nose for the 64GB model. (don't feel too
bad though - us 16GBers already got shafted anyway when apps suddenly went
huge due to retinafication)

~~~
Firehed
> But let's face it, that's not going to improve their bottom line, whereas
> telling everyone to buy a new iPad every 24 months is.

That kind of short-term thinking is what gets companies into trouble. No, it
won't help the bottom line now, but when the next purchase rolls around, don't
you think premature obsolescence (or the lack thereof) of the device being
upgraded will factor into what replacement to get? It's certainly a major
reason I won't buy an android device (at least one not made by google, which
tend to get long term support like apple)

~~~
fluidcruft
Just to clarify, the Nexus devices (NOT built by Google) get aee quickly
upgraded (with a few exceptions on some carriers). Motorola (now a part of
Google) continues to be the worst at upgrades.

------
jaysonelliot
The disappointment, to me, isn't with the iPad alone. It's with the new move
in the industry to non-upgradable devices and internet-dependent software.

I've enjoyed my iPad 1 since the day I bought it, and I haven't seen any need
to replace it with a newer model. Neither the Retina Display nor the camera
were particularly important to me, and I didn't have much need for more
storage or memory.

Would I like to use iOS 6 on my iPad? Certainly. Do I need to? Not right now.

Over the next year or two, though, I'm sure there will be plenty of software
that I'd like to use, but won't be able to. It's possible that some apps, like
Netflix or Spotify, or some games, will reach a point where older versions
won't work anymore, as they roll out features that require some update or
another to play nicely with their servers.

What will happen if I have to restore my iPad to factory settings, or just
accidentally delete some app? Will I still be able to re-install the version I
need in two years, or five, or more?

Every computer reaches a useful end to its life at some point in time. The
acceleration of that process due to a closed system that allows no upgrade to
RAM or storage, and no ability to install software except through a centrally-
controlled repository, frankly sucks.

Windows 8 shows that it's more than just Apple headed for closed systems. If
current trends prevail, how far out are we from the closed model of the iPad
being the standard for the industry?

I hope there will be some consumer backlash, and a company with a commitment
to great technical and experience design takes up the standard of more open
hardware and software as a competitive differentiator. I'd vote for them with
my dollars.

~~~
mythz
It should be pretty well known by now that upgradable components in hand-held
devices is a losing strategy. The mass populace of Consumers just don't care,
they wan't something that _Just Works_ , that's simple, pretty and light with
a long battery life. Which appears to align with Apple's focus perfectly.

I think it's safe to assume that iOS devices aren't going to come with
upgradeable internal components. They've got models at different price points
and their 3rd party hardware ecosystems - which they plan satisfying the
consumers use-cases until the next version rolls around again.

~~~
mark_l_watson
What about the 20 seconds it takes to replace a battery on my Samsung Galaxy
III S?

That isn't being upgradable, but at least fixable. Same with putting in a chip
before going to Europe, etc.

~~~
dmd
It may take YOU 20 seconds. It takes my mother upwards of five minutes to
replace the batteries in a standard D-cell flashlight, and then another five
minutes to do it all again because she didn't put all the batteries in in the
same direction.

People really appreciate things they don't have to fuss with.

------
axx
When the iPad 1 launched in germany, i bought a 64GB model with 3G. I payed
more than 800 Euros. And now Apple tells me "it's to old, go and sell it on
eBay for 150 bucks".

Are you fucking kidding me?

I'm a Apple user for ages, i have two Mac Pros, three MacBook Pros (family),
one MacBook Air and all iPhones that Apple ever made. I sold every old piece
of hardware or replaced it when i needed a faster or newer model. But THIS is
fucking sick.

Android is rising and in 6-12 month it will be even better. If Apple continues
to ship crap like Siri and iOS6 Maps with all this false marketing Apple has a
dark future ahead!

I bought a Nexus 7 a few weeks ago and it cost me 200 euro. It can do nearly
the same as any iPad (i use it for - yes, instapaper, email, youtube and
general media consumption). Sure, there are not as many Apps as in Apples App
Store, but this is going to change.

To be said: i will never buy any iPad again. Sorry iPad, but i'm with Android
now!

EDIT: As some sub-commenters said/ask: I'm not 100% sure what happens when i
have old App versions (compatible with my iPad 1) and i need to reinstall iOS
and all my Apps (for whatever reason- maybe a crash or anything else), which
App Version do i get? The latest? Or the latest one that is compatible with my
iPad 1?

Since many App developers are very happy to drop support for older iOS
versions (which is fine - make better software!) i think it's time for Apple
to provide some backwards support for older devices. Some mechanic for
developers to freeze certain App Versions especially for older devices. It's
not like we're talking about ancient technology, that thing isn't even 2 years
old.

~~~
sxcurry
Funny, I have the original iPad as well, but I haven't yet gotten the official
message from Apple to sell it on eBay. Maybe they're sending them to Europe
first?

Also, the strange thing is that it still runs as well as the day I bought it,
and still does everything it did from Day 1, as well as new things that came
with updates to iOS.

I forget, why am I supposed to be angry at Apple?

~~~
hermanhermitage
Still runs as well? I'd love to know what set up you've got.

Since iOS 5 my iPad 1 has been utterly unusable - many multi second lags and
endless application quits.

Even brand new out of the box the iPad 1 and also the original iPhone were
incredibly unstable - particularly in safari.

Everyone turned a blind eye to it.

~~~
sxcurry
Mostly browsing (new Chrome works well), Netflix, LogMeIn Ignition for remote
desktop, photo viewing, Skype.

Compared to my new MacBook Air it does seems a little slow starting apps, etc,
but the thing is almost 2 1/2 years old, still has good battery life, and
basically does everything I want. I think I've got my money's worth already,
and expect to keep using it in the future. BTW, cost of those iOS upgrades -
$0. Not a bad deal compared to the $50 that software like Parallels keeps
asking for every year.

~~~
LordIllidan
I have an iPad 1 myself, and I am looking to replace it.

Browsing - complex pages (techcrunch is one particular abomination) have a
tendency to crash Safari. Chrome was far too slow to bother with. Old Twitter
app was crashing several times when loading in-app browser. Applications in
general tend to quit a lot.

It worked wonderfully when it was out, but its barely usable now.

~~~
MatthewPhillips
I get the Safari crashes too. the App Store is the worst though, seems to
crash every other time I use it.

------
kennu
As a developer, I would be happy to no longer have to deal with iPad 1's. They
really have little memory to work with and it tends to constantly run out.
Particularly when you try to pre-render things in memory to have them
_smoothly_ scroll into view.

As a reminder, iPad RAM amounts (from Wikipedia):

    
    
        1st generation 256 MB DDR
        2nd generation 512 MB DDR2
        3rd generation 1 GB DDR2
    

So I can't blame Apple for feeling the same way. When they originally released
iPad 1, they probably didn't quite anticipate how graphical and visual the
user interfaces would eventually turn out to be.

~~~
Nicole060
> So I can't blame Apple for feeling the same way. When they originally
> released iPad 1, they probably didn't quite anticipate how graphical and
> visual the user interfaces would eventually turn out to be.

Oh yeah ? Apple has always skimped out on ram on every single device and made
you pay a premium to get more. That wasn't a real problem on macs in the past
because it wasn't difficult to add ram yourself, but now with tablets and the
new macbook air and macbook pro retina.. that's kind of a problem.

I bought one of the first macbook air that had the ram soldered to the board
without thinking. If I had known that Mac OS Lion and Mountain Lion would've
become so bloated I wouldn't have bought the 2gb model that I sold for a
measly 200 euros recently. This piece of shit couldn't browse the web with
multiple tabs open without swapping even though the same task was okay in the
past with Windows XP and 512mb of ram. (I probably could have gotten more but
I didn't WANT to sell it for more because I would have felt like I'd be
robbing someone by selling them a defective device for a premium) By the way,
there wasn't a single PC vendor selling laptops with less than 4gb of ram,
when I bought my MBA, even el cheapo laptops that sold for $400 had 4gb of ram
(what does it says about Apple ?). I was kind of retarded to buy the 2gb MBA,
and I should've spent a little more for the 4gb, but I don't really regret it
either since I opened my eyes and sold all my Apple devices, and will never
buy anything from apple again.

It was obvious to a LOT of people that the first iPad was way too lacking in
power and would be prone to something akin to planned obsolescence. Even me,
who got fucked by the Macbook air, knew that the first iPad was indecent (I
waited for the iPad 2 before I got my first tablet.)

Look at the top of the line in the android world : the (tablet) Samsung Galaxy
Note 10.1, which has a much lower resolution than the iPad Retina (and thus
less hefty memory needs for the apps), has 2gb of ram inside, future proofing
it a bit against future applications. The (phone) Galaxy Note 2 also has 2gb
of ram, as do some of the variants of the Galaxy S3, now that's a real top of
the line phone. When I saw the retina iPad for the first time, my first
impressions, after the initial "wow" you get for the screen, was, the specs
are underwhelming for this kind of device.

Apple is all about the shiny. The 13" Macbook Pro still has 4gb of ram as a
standard in the entry level, even though it sells for 1249 euros. I've seen PC
laptops under 999 euros sold with 8gb of ram, 1TB hard drives, core i7 and a
nvidia chip inside (rather than the shitty intel graphic chip that's included
in the entry MBP).

I'm done getting ripped off by Apple.

~~~
taligent
I really don't know where to start with this ridiculous diatribe.

Firstly as for your MacBook Air. OSX runs fine with 2GB and shouldn't be
swapping constantly for browsing. And not sure why you are complaining that
you got 200 euros for a 4 year old machine.

Secondly you seem to be really bitter about not buying the cheaper and
arguably nastier laptops. Why not buy them ? Clearly the only thing that
concerns you is specs so why not buy an Apple ?

Thirdly a LOT of people thought the iPad was an incredibly feat of engineering
to get all that it did into such a small form factor. Seems to be a lot of
revisionist history there.

~~~
Nicole060
>Firstly as for your MacBook Air. OSX runs fine with 2GB and shouldn't be
swapping constantly for browsing

What the hell are you smoking. Safari with multiple tabs will eat all the
remaining memory. The whole system itself took 1,4 gb, there was only 700 mb
left after startup on a CLEAN system, formatted and reinstalled without a
single program running in the background (Mountain Lion).

> And not sure why you are complaining that you got 200 euros for a 4 year old
> machine.

Two years old actually. It's a late 2010 MBA. And I'm not complaining, I'm
actually saying that I could have sold it for more but didn't bother and sold
it myself for 200 euros to get rid of it faster AND to avoid the feeling of
ripping off someone (which I would have felt if I had sold it for more,
because I consider it a DEAD machine. A useless machine. You can't add ram and
the base system is already overloaded with its 2gb. Selling it for what I
could have gotten from it (you should look up what people can actually get
from selling Apple devices even when they suck) would have been ripping off
someone else.)

>Secondly you seem to be really bitter about not buying the cheaper and
arguably nastier laptops. Why not buy them ? Clearly the only thing that
concerns you is specs so why not buy an Apple ?

I just did that, right now. Am I not free to speak my mind on Apple just like
you did when you called those laptops "nasty" ?

> Thirdly a LOT of people thought the iPad was an incredibly feat of
> engineering to get all that it did into such a small form factor. Seems to
> be a lot of revisionist history there.

Putting mobile phone hardware inside an iPad's case is not a great "feat of
engineering". I would have agreed with you if you called iOS a great feat of
(software) engineering, and its user interface revolutionary for the time. But
there is nothing special about the iPad's hardware. We got mobile phones today
that are far more powerful than the first iPad and many mobile phone at the
time had hardware similar to the iPad, it's not like Apple did anything
special there, they just put a big screen and battery inside an aluminum case,
where in the flying fuck do you see a great feat of engineering ? the
bullshit, it hurts.

Ultimately, what's attractive about apple is what their software engineers do.
And what's pushing me off is their business practice, closedness, cheapening
out on specs to create planned obscolescence.

iOS was what made the iPad great and possible, as it did for the iPhone. And
OS X used to be a great OS, until they added so much bloat it couldn't run on
2gb of ram. No apple fanboy here is going to admit it, but the iPad had 256mb
of ram to ensure that people would upgrade to the next iPad, end of the line.
Just like the first iPhone didn't have 3g even when top of the line phones
from competitors had 3g, to make the early adopters spend even more money the
year after.

Apple has been ripping off its customers since forever, it's just the last
straw. Do you remember the days of the cd-writer/dvd reader combo you could
find on many Macs even when the cheapeast PCs had DVD writers ? I do. Apple is
a cheap company, that sells cheap hardware with an expensive case. It's hard
not to think so, I can recall so many examples of them behaving that way. Do
you know the price difference there was even back in the days of the combo
drives in the mac between a combo and a dvd writer ? Nothing, it was
practically nothing, a matter of a few euros. But to get a mac with a dvd
writer inside you had to buy the one that cost much more in the lineup with a
better processor and so on. Ridiculous. I can't believe we, as in the
collective of Apple customers around the world, put up with so much shit for
so long.

The only thing that saves Apple is the software, and it won't last for long,
because the competition is getting much better at this. Windows 7 is stable
and really nice to use, Android Jelly Bean runs as smooth on my Nexus 7 as iOS
did on my iPad 2. Goodbye Apple, it was fun while it lasted.

~~~
nicholassmith
I have a 2010 MBA with 2Gb of RAM, it only chugs on browser stuff when I've
got a VM running and compiling, a terminal running various bits and 3 windows
with about 6-7 tabs open. It works _fine_. Your personal experience is not a
good way to go "What the hell are you smoking", as there's many of us with
that model who've had nothing but happy happy joy times with it.

------
CrazedGeek
(warning: tangential)

"Knowing Apple, that sounds like a far more plausible explanation than the
most popular theory I’ve heard: that Apple just wants to force iPad 1 owners
to buy new iPads."

I totally believe this is true on the iPad front, but I can't imagine any
other reason that iOS 6 would support the iPhone 3GS but not the 3rd
generation iPod Touch. They have very nearly the exact same specifications,
except one has a GSM radio in it and the other doesn't. I wouldn't mind if it
didn't get further updates (three years is pretty decent update-wise), but the
disparity is slightly irritating.

~~~
spaghetti
I'm wondering about the two-year or similar contracts people signed when they
purchased or obtained for free a 3GS? Perhaps there's a corner case when
someone got a 3GS + 2 year contract just five months ago. Might be some
backlash if the device they planned to use for the next 19 months couldn't be
upgraded to the latest iOS. Note this isn't an issue with iPod Touch or iPad
due to lack of contracts (except perhaps an iPad data contract? But I'm under
the impression those are more flexible, month-to-month etc).

------
mfincham
Here's an idea:

The moment the device is no longer supported, unlock the bootloader. If you
really felt philanthropic, release some docs on the hardware interfaces.

This way Linux / *BSD / Haiku / whatever could be ported and extend the usable
life of the device. This would foster a thriving second hand market, massively
reduce the security risks that users of the older devices are exposed to, help
clear old stock, keep devices out of landfills and so on.

Apple has already said they don't support the device anymore, so they have
nothing to lose by opening it up (if we accept that the reason Apple locks
down their bootloaders etc is to ease the burden of support from people
breaking their own devices, not an argument I entirely buy...).

~~~
taligent
Why ? The device still works on iOS5 and will still run 99% of the apps
available today and over the next few years.

Most developers are still going to be targeting iOS4+ for a while to come.

~~~
mfincham
Eleven good reasons:

    
    
      mfincham@desktop:~/Desktop$ grep "Subject:" < ios6.eml
      Subject: APPLE-SA-2012-09-19-1 iOS 6
      mfincham@desktop:~/Desktop$ grep "code execution" < ios6.eml | wc -l
      11
    

Those bugs will never be fixed for iPad 1 users.

Furthermore, "next few years" seems quite optimistic to me. There's no harm in
unlocking these unsupported devices, then people can EITHER run iOS 4/5 and
live with the flaws OR run their own code. Nobody loses!

(Note as well that the bugs are things like "loading a web page could result
in arbitrary code execution").

~~~
achompas
I agree. Top iOS app developers like Marco are dying to move their apps to iOS
6 (according to their podcasts + blog posts), so I think we can measure app
compatibility for the iPad 1 in months, not years.

------
dpearson
What Apple has done with the iPad 1 (I'll refrain from speculating on motives,
as I have absolutely no idea why they _actually_ EOL'd it) is still not as bad
as what they've done with armv6 devices. A developer, if they want (and some
won't), can still support the iPad 1 fairly easily (or as easily as any
support for iOS 5). The iPhone 3G and older, on the other hand, are truly
unsupported; it is impossible to build for these devices in the iOS 6 SDK[1],
making them a nightmare to support (and impossible to support alongside armv7s
code for the new iPhone).

[1]: <http://blog.chpwn.com/post/31824877081>

------
Kylekramer
I don't get why the author feels the need to rationalize the decision as not
motivated by money. Sure, it isn't the whole reason. But there is just little
motivation to get iOS 6 on the iPad. Apple does a better job than pretty much
everyone else in this area, but dropping hardware from iOS6 is win-win from
Apple's perspective. Easier engineering effort while incentivizing upgrades.

I'm one of those iPad 1 owners left out of iOS 6, and I don't begrudge Apple
that. If it was that important to me, I'd plunk down the cash.

------
brackin
The iPad 1 feels much slower than the iPhone 3GS does today. Although I don't
like this move, having played with my friends iPad 1 recently. I feel that
anything further than iOS6 might slow down the device considerably. When I
installed iOS6 on my 4S it became much faster which is unusual for me.

------
mythz
I bought the 1st gen iPad knowing it was only going to be a stop gap measure
until a newer version with a Camera came out (which I thought was going to be
the killer feature - turns out I rarely use it) so I only bought the baseline
version. I found the $499 baseline price a steal which quickly turned into my
most used device. The value of Apple's products go way down the higher up the
range of models you go, so I can see why iPad 1 owners may be upset - but it
shouldn't be unexpected that the resale value of top range models depreciate
faster than the baseline.

So I can't complain, I've got a lot of utility out of the iPad1 whose
experience led me to buy the top of the line Retina iPad 3 when it came out. I
was keeping the old iPad 1 around for compatibility (as an iOS dev) but I
guess this means I wont need to hold onto it for much longer :).

------
fierarul
Totally didn't see this coming. I was actually looking into Settings to see if
it detects the iOS 6 release and only afterwards I bothered searching the net
and finding out there will be no iOS 6 update!

But this is not the biggest disappointment about the iPad1.

The big one was how iPad1 doesn't have a camera and not long after I bought it
(when it finally arrived in the EU) Apple released the iPad 2 which had a
camera!

How hard could it have been to engineer an external camera for the iPad1 that
could be plugged in via a docking connector? This way I could use the iPad
upside-down and actually have is usable as a video conferencing device.

I can't even give it to my parents as a laptop replacement (what people
imagine it could be) since Skype video won't work on it!

------
ChuckMcM
Its an interesting business question, "How much do we invest in supporting the
old generation vs the return?"

Apple really hasn't set a way to price it. They could of course, they could
price an iPad 1 version of IOS6 to see what the market would pay for the
capability. But you get maybe one shot at that.

They could do an 'upgrade today' offer where you sent them and iPad and they
gave you a discount on a new iPad, but if they sold you the new iPad at the
'loaded cost' (which is COGS + warranty support + inventory costs) it might
not be as much of a discount as you could get by just applying the money you
got on ebay toward a new one.

------
msrpotus
I would have liked iOS 6 but you know what? My iPad still works and still does
everything I bought it to do. Sure, it might be cool to have some of the new
features but I'm perfectly happy without them.

------
twelvechairs
Apple are horrible for trying to make people upgrade - thats for sure, but
really, what apps 'require ios 6'? I'm still using an iphone3 (last os upgrade
was a stripped down version of ios4) and the only thing I haven't been able to
download because it won't work on my phone was a some game once that was just
a timewaster anyway.

The most important thing by far on a phone/tablet is the web. It doesn't care
about your OS version... It was like this on the iphone1 and it will be on the
ipad10.

~~~
ajross
What apps "require" ICS? Isn't Gingerbread good enough? :)

The point is that lack updates hurts consumers. This is no less true when
Apple does it than when Android OEMs and carriers do.

------
melling
How much more would it have cost to put an extra 256MB in the original iPad?
Apple has more money in the bank than they know what to do with; over $100B.
It might be a better use of the money to give a little extra RAM to make their
devices run better.

~~~
robryan
Apple didn't get that money taking low margins on hardware. Overall this
probably helps their new iPad sales, the vocal minority complain and everyone
else probably either stays on ios5 or upgrades.

~~~
melling
It creates a small fragment in the iOS market. Should developers move to iOS6
only support in a few months or keep supporting the iPad 1?

------
d0m
What trouble me is when there's a new apple release, older devices seems to
automagically slow down.

When I first bought the ipad1, it was crazy fast. Everyone was amazed about
the speed things would move and open. Now, everything is do damn painful to
use.. it's lagging and taking eternity to do trivial tasks. (And by the way,
I've formatted it and there's practically nothing on it).

My guess would be that more recent os use more memory to be more efficient on
newer devices while rendering older devices slower.

I hope it's the reason, and not a voluntary "let's slow you down so you buy a
new one".

~~~
Adirael
Couldn't it be just perception? I still use an iPhone 3G and I remember I did
not want to touch the iPhone 4 when it came out because it was a lot faster
than my old 3G and I would realize it even more before playing with a 4. Now
I've used a lot a 4S and the 3G is slow as hell, but I would think it is just
my perception.

I use an iPad 1 and haven't used any new one for more than 5 minutes and the
iPad 1 feels exactly as fast as when I first bought it.

I think the same thing happens in computers. I run a hackintosh machine with
an SSD and pretty good hardware and the other day I was putting together an
old PC to run MAME (I'm building an arcade cabinet) and god, the thing is slow
as hell. I'm sure it was just as slow then I was using it (Pentium D with 3
Gigs of RAM), it just that we are used to be faster now.

EDIT: Note that new app versions probably ARE slower than older ones in old
hardware. If the developer is using the last iPad available to test and
neglecting older hardware is what happens. Back when I did native apps we used
the best hardware available to develop and low-medium end to test in order to
avoid this and optimize our code for speed on not-so-new hardware.

------
MatthewPhillips
This is going to become a really problem for developers. As people upgrade,
they don't simply throw the old iPads away. Some sell them, but others give
them to their parents. And older people will keep technology around for a long
time. My mother has my old 1st generation Kindle, which happens to work fine,
and probably will keep using it for many years to come. The same will happen
to the iPad 1 (and 2, etc.). They won't notice, or care about maps or Siri,
but they will notice if Facebook stops working.

------
dj2stein9
By far the worst thing about this is there will never be an improved web
browser on the iPad... ever. Because of Apple ridiculous aversion to altenate
web browsers (that don't use the Safari engine) no third party will be able to
deliver a new web browser.

Years from now the iPad 1 will still be using outdated HTML5 specs, and old
version of the web socket protocol, and will never have new wen technologies
added to it. Apple has ensured this device remains technologically frozen in
time forever.

------
bobbles
As an iPhone 3G user previously, this is probably a very good thing. The iOS
4.0 update basically bricked the phone because it just couldn't handle it. I
recently found out how easy it was to revert to 3.1.3 and its actually a
pleasure to use again (albeit still noticeably slower than my 4S).

If Apple released iOS6 for the iPad 1 you would probably be bagging them out
for making the device so slow.

~~~
boristhespider
Yes, Apple does seem to be between a rock and a hard place.

------
nopal
I'd be interested to see an iOS developer's perspective on when they're going
to start requiring iOS 6. From a user's perspective, I don't see any features
that are going to encourage devs to drop iOS 6 compatibility (eg. ARC;
background support).

It's big these types of features and functionality that are going to determine
the usefulness and longetivity of iOS 5.

------
maguay
For me, my iPad 1 still makes a plenty good
Instapaper/Kindle/email/writing/basic web/casual gaming device, and my only
major hope is that developers like Marco don't drop iOS 5 support way too
quick for their apps.

------
kcwebz
It's been long enough now that we should all be learning something. If its a
"1st Gen" product or doesn't have an "S" on the product name, ignore it..

------
benhalllondon
How did you get this? It's not even on <http://www.marco.org/> ?

