Apple Says Fourth-Generation iPad Released in 2012 is Now Obsolete

Memories...

RIP 2012 Mac mini. You were truly a workhorse.

We thank you for your service, iPad (4th Generation)

When Apple was a good brand, it was the user who decided when something was obsolete or not (and who was in control of not changing something when it just worked (TM)). And this was one of the strongest selling points of the Mac. Now Apple changed the game.

What Fantasy are you living in?
If anything, Apple supports their devices longer than they ever have.
Let's not forget about how Apple completely cut support for PowerPC only after one major upgrade post Intel transition.
If you bought any PowerPC computer in 2005-2006, you were kinda screwed by 2009.
Snow Leopard didn't support these computers, iLife 11 Didn't support these computers, the Mac App Store didn't support these computers, so after a while you were kind of just stuck with what you had.
Or who can forget the iPhone 3G. Released in 2008, sold at a reduced price up until June 2010... and then got its last software update that November.
2 years. Even the original iPhone got close to 3.
So yeah, I have no idea what reality you're living in where Apple used to never let devices go obsolete, but it is just far, far from reality.
At least today, Apple let's the iPad Air2, a device introduced in October 2014, run the latest iOS in 2021/22. And it runs it very well. That's 7 full years of software support, and I wouldn't be surprised to see an 8th.
2000s Apple wouldn't even be able to promise 7 years of support, let alone deliver.

Yeah, I'm using our iPad 4 the same way.

Back in 2017, my gf and I did this road trip on the East coast of Canada and we used the iPad 3 (32GB and 3G) for photos, videos and navigation! It worked flawlessly with more than enough battery; My mother has had to throw out over half a dozen android tablets, probably spending much more than what I did back in the day (700€), during the same time, which today is almost a decade!

Read this article and most responses to this thread on my older iPad 3. I downgraded it to iOS 8. Much faster and more stable than the later iOS 9 on these things.




Still read many sites on it daily, watch video podcasts in my kitchen, and monitor my home Blue Iris DVR from it.