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Tell HN: All new iPhone apps and app updates submitted must support iPhone 5

by m2mapps on 4/28/13, 6:31 PM with 26 comments

• by Samuel_Michon on 4/28/13, 6:50 PM

  This has been known for over a month[1].

  I’d say it’s good change. Within 2 months of when the iPhone 5 was released, about half of the apps I use most had received updates that optmized for the larger screen. After 7 months though, the remaining apps still haven’t been optimized, even though many of those apps did receive updates in the meantime. As of May 1st, a developer can’t just post a bugfix without also optimizing for all the different iPhone screens.

  [1] http://www.macrumors.com/2013/03/21/apple-will-no-longer-app...

• by WA on 4/28/13, 9:02 PM

  Important note: This also means that you cannot release any updates that support the iPhone 3G (iOS 4.2.1), since you cannot compile for both, iPhone 5 and 3G.

  iPhone 5 requires Xcode 4.6, which doesn't allow to build apps for iOS < 4.3.

• by kennywinker on 4/28/13, 7:02 PM

  The reason this is an issue at all is that in order to support te iPhone 5 screen you must drop support for everything before iOS 4.3. Many of the apps you see holding out are doing so because they have (or believe they have) a significant >4.3 user base.

  This got better when iOS 6 got jailbroken, but it's still an annoying forced obsolescence. The reason they did it this way is unclear as well.