It's so the developer can release updates to their software without having to deal with hardware fragmentation.
The developer releases what their minimum version is, and that matches up with the OS's specification.

It's a bit like how you can get a 5 year old laptop that was lightening fast at browsing the web, but now is completely slow and barely works. Websites and Browsers have become more advance, use up more resources, so it's not that "the computer is getting slow", it's just "it's doing more work".
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Thu 18 Sep 2014, 13:40, 1 reply, 10 years ago)

Right. but it worked fine on day one and on day two didn't
Ethical software providers still make the old versions available for old tech. Would it really be so much of an issue to allow my wife to download the last version of the youtube app that was available for her device rather than saying "Fuck you buy a new iPad if you want this" I just jailbroke it and downloaded the IPA files.
( Peej, Thu 18 Sep 2014, 13:45, Reply)

Also at this point the device was 3 years old
If I paid 400 quid for something that was supposed to be fucking amazing I'd want it to still at least function in some way three years later. "Oh sorry we can't let you do that anymore" on a three year old device is bullshit
( Peej, Thu 18 Sep 2014, 13:49, Reply)

RANT!
Can you imagine if playstation did that? "Sorry your console is three years old, you can't play your old games anymore even though you paid for them but if you buy the latest playstation you can play them again for free! Aren't we wonderful! and look! A finger print reader!"
( Peej, Thu 18 Sep 2014, 13:53, Reply)

x-box does do that, I have a day-one of the 360, and it can't do half the stuff the new one can.
I wouldn't expect it to either.
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Thu 18 Sep 2014, 13:55, Reply)

No but it can still do all the stuff it always could
my wifes iPad used to be able to do stuff that it now can't.
( Peej, Thu 18 Sep 2014, 13:58, Reply)

I see what you mean, but think of what the app developer and store-approval people would have to go through for _every_ app AND update.
"Does this work to a good standard on this hardware? does this work to a good standard on this iOS version?" There would be a rediculous amount of combinations, and their whole "It just works" ethos will no longer apply, if apps keep on running slowly/crashing because of old combinations.

You can't supply old version numbers (ie, "You've got an iPad 1, so we'll give you v5 of YouTube instead of v8"), because in the updates are security as well as functionailty. You can't expect the average user to jailbreak or install un/signed code either.

I agree it's a bitch that what it could do one day, can't do the next day, but to have that would be at depriment to entire product line.
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Thu 18 Sep 2014, 13:55, Reply)

If people have paid money for an app it is wrong to turn around and say, you can no longer use this app unless you pay for a new iPad
End of.
( Peej, Thu 18 Sep 2014, 13:59, Reply)