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I am digging deeper into iOS application coding, and am running across the usual problem of trying to decide what versions of the iOS base I would like to focus on.

The application I am focusing mostly on is an older one of mine, DumTek, a Middle Eastern drumming tutor. It runs currently on anything back to 3.0, and might have even worked further back. I do use iAd but those are easy to enable or disable for different versions.

It's clear that Apple does not want me to make applications that go back too far. I have an older 3.x device which I mostly use for development, but that version of the OS and even 4.x are lacking some pretty cool features I'd like to use. I could enable or disable features depending on OS support, but I fear that will complicate things immediately and make maintenance harder. It also greatly increases my on-device testing footprint.

I am inclined to decide that I should just support 5.x so I can use iCloud for personal data storage, but that is not 100% necessary. I could say for 5.x devices the option to use iCloud is there, but for 4.x devices it stores locally only. I could also continue to support 3.x devices by disabling all of these new features.

So, in summary:

Should I abandon 3.x, even though not everyone has upgraded to 5.x capable devices?

Should I abandon 4.x and focus entirely on 5.x devices?

Michael Graff
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    Since the answer to this question will be different a month or a year from now, this is probably too localized in time. – Brad Larson Nov 01 '11 at 22:10
  • Answer to this question can also go in a way that `Final decision can be made on the basis of Targetted Users of the App and the requirements.` – DShah Nov 02 '11 at 05:37

3 Answers3

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This is a fundamentally difficult question to answer, and depends on lot on who you think your customers are, and how complicated your code would get. No one can offer super-specific insight about your business case without knowing a lot more about it.

As you're determined, there are two considerations:

  1. Whether you're targeting devices that can't run iOS 4 or 5.
  2. Trading off your long term technical complexity vs potential users.

Re: #1, there are some devices that are stuck on iOS 3.x forever (iPhone 2G, early iPod touches). There are some that probably are stuck on iOS 4.x forever, but I'm not sure where that line is.

In general, iOS users who can upgrade, do so quickly (I don't have a link for this but maybe others do--- I've certainly seen this of my users).

TL;DR: A reasonable rule of thumb in general is, unless you're making a point of supporting legacy devices or laggard users, you're pretty much OK requiring the latest major version of iOS. iOS 5.x is still very new, but within a month or two it will be effectively universal on devices that support it.

Ben Zotto
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  • Do you know of any up-to-date metrics showing iOS version use? I've seen them for web sites, but this seems to be considered somewhat secret. – Michael Graff Nov 01 '11 at 21:49
  • Have a look at this: http://www.marco.org/2011/03/24/ios-device-and-os-version-stats-from-instapaper-3-0. This is for Instapaper, a popular iPhone app. – Thomas Müller Nov 02 '11 at 00:05
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Typically support up to one version behind. I'd say abandon supporting 3.x explicitly, but still support 4.x until adoption of 5.0 increases.

http://insights.chitika.com/2011/ios5-breaks-into-the-market-with-record-numbers/

You should be able to soft-implement iCloud just like with iAd between 3 and 4, and have users on 4.x use whatever prior storage version you've been using in the app.

However, regardless of what you do, make sure your App Store data (and info files) reflect the minimum iOS required for your app... I updated my app to use 4.0 features, and forgot to update these, and as a result all of my 3.x users updated to the new version and get a crashing app - poisoned my reviews forever.

Tim
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There may be some statistical evidence suggesting that users of devices running old OS versions tend very disproportionately to not be spending money on new apps. You will have to decide if that small and shrinking customer base is worth your development time, versus spending that same time on other apps/endeviors for the larger customer base running newer OS versions and buying more apps.

The developers of instapaper are one possible source for OS versions percentages using that popular app.

hotpaw2
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  • Agreed. Pointless to support the older models, as those people wouldn't pay for any app purchase anyway. – ABCD Nov 02 '11 at 02:31