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Is it presently impossible to officially publish for "legacy" apple 32-bit mobile iOS? (market percentages and motives are not relevant to this question)

It is spring 2016 with iOS 9 being current and xcode 6/7 on Mavericks/Yosemite/ElCapitan the minimum requirement to do iOS-7 64-bit releases (requirement set by apple). It seems Apple has effectively forbidden a developers ability to sell new Apps to owners of apple's (old) 32-bit devices.

A few old posts outline methods to use legacy SDK's extracted from the old xcode dmg files with Xcode 4.5/5, but xcode 6/7 does not seem intended to be used in this way for a commercial publication of NEW software for sale on Apple's App store. Nor does apple allow submission of a 32-bit release file that could be distributed.

Is there a way to successfully distribute (for $ on App store) a new app file that can be sold to the 32-bit legacy iPod touches and early iphones?

Or, is the hackstore now the only practical avenue of release?..... Cordially, -helo 2kg.4.23

Haxor Helo
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  • You've answered your own question, so what question do you really have? – matt Apr 23 '16 at 17:12
  • Question is: How can one sell NEW app code to a 32-bit apple device owner. – Haxor Helo Apr 23 '16 at 17:27
  • And answer is: "It seems Apple has effectively forbidden a developers ability to sell new Apps to owners of apple's (old) 32-bit devices." "Nor does apple allow submission of a 32-bit release file that could be distributed." – matt Apr 23 '16 at 17:31

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It is (currently) not impossible for the newer 32-bit devices. Xcode 7.3 with the iOS 9.x SDK allows setting a Deployment Target as low as iOS 6.0, and can build and include a 32-bit armv7 slice in addition to the required arm64 slice. This allows supporting devices as old an iPhone 3GS with App Store submissions.

Your NEW iOS app might not be able to include any new framework APIs, auto layout, or storyboards, depending on Deployment Target. You will have to test and debug the apps on actual vintage iOS hardware, as there exist no currently supported Simulators for iOS versions this old.

However, very old armv6 devices, such as the iPhone 2G and 3G and original iPod Touch are no longer supported by any current releases of Xcode or OS X. These devices can't run iOS 6.1, and they can't understand binaries that include a 64-bit slice (which is an App Store requirement). You can't even compile an armv6 binary slice on newer Macs, as that requires the gcc compiler and an Xcode that supports gcc, which may require a Snow Leopard or older Mac.

hotpaw2
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