back to article Apple to end support for original iPhone: report

Support for Apple's original iPhone will end on June 11, according to a report from 9 to 5 Mac which got its hands on an advisory (JPG) sent to Apple shops advising of products the fruity company will no longer support. Announced in early 2007 and then released in June of that year, the first iPhone's breakthrough feature …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Neither XP nor iPhone changed the world

    Unless you live in a myopic little world.

    1. El_Fev

      Re: Neither XP nor iPhone changed the world

      Grow up you idiot! Jesus wept

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Neither XP nor iPhone changed the world

        Grow up you idiot! Jobs wept, you mean, for was he not the One?

    2. Wayland Sothcott 1

      Re: Neither XP nor iPhone changed the world

      MS Windows changed the world back in 1989, Windows XP is just an improvement.

      The iPhone changed the world but the iPhone 4 or 5 or whatever is just an improvement.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Neither XP nor iPhone changed the world

        Windows in 1989 was still on version 2. And it was awful. 3.0 came a year later and was still, in typical Microsoft fashion, rough as a badgers arse. It wasn't until the first 'service pack' was released in 1992 (Windows 3.1) that it started to be anything interesting. Windows 95 was really the landmark version. So no, Windows didn't change the world in 1989.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Neither XP nor iPhone changed the world

      and if you believe Samsung they invented the Galaxy lines all by themselves.

      They just need to work harder at convincing juries and judges all over the world.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    Yeah like ummmmm

    Who cares?

    Next headline.

    "Man discovers dirt in front yard."

    (society in uproar / Councilors stormed out / end of world etc.)

  3. bazza Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Ironically, web apps are now making something of an HTML-5-and-4G-networks-fuelled comeback, as those two innovations make it possible to deliver an experience far closer to that of a native app than was possible in the far-off days of 2007."

    Maybe, but at what cost in power consumption? I like good battery life.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    6 years - 6 years - my Android was unsupported after about 6 months. I suspect over the years a much higher percentage of Androids will end up in drawers than iPhones. I know an iPhone 3GS that is now on it's 3rd owner and still going strong.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Support

      Yes we have an original that is still going strong, well it still works that is.

      One reason we went back to them after 4x Android phones was the lack of support and updates not only from the manufacturers but also from the networks and the crapware they would load the phones with delaying updates by months and years if ever.

      Strangely I have never had to reset or reboot an iPhone, though with the Android phones it was a regular part of ownership.

      If only every smartphone came with a guaranteed 6 year support......

    2. 42

      4S

      Complete rubbish, crashes frequently, same as my son's.

      1. Ted Treen
        Happy

        Re: 4S

        I suppose it depends on what you're trying to do with it.

        My 4 needed rebooting maybe two or three times in two and a half years of ownership. Found one app that crashed a few times and removed it. No more crashes! Now got a 64GB iPhone 5 (had it for four months) - haven't needed to reboot it at all and it has never crashed.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      6 years - 6 years - my Android was unsupported after about 6 months. I suspect over the years a much higher percentage of Androids will end up in drawers than iPhones. I know an iPhone 3GS that is now on it's 3rd owner and is still the same load of shite!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ending support?

    In what way have they been supporting it in recent times? Is there any record of anyone actually getting any support at all anywhere in the world for an IPhone One that was only two years of age, never mind one that is now seven years old?

    Judging by how poorly they support users of current Apple products (no two year warranty [that's illegal here is not the civilised world], expensive Applecare, little help if your battery snuffs it, etc etc) it sounds like so much market image flim-flammery.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ending support?

      All I can say is that's contrary to the Apple support I have received. Problem with iPhone (actually after I dropped it) - 20 minutes in the store = fixed = happy. Friend returned his by post - fixed same day and had it back the next = happy. Someone else I know had a Samsung - had to post it back to them - 3 weeks to fix and all they did was send out a refurb - actually ended up buying a new phone = unhappy.

      As for legal EU warranties - clearly Apple (like everyone else) have to provide that warranty - what they give is in addition to your basic EU warranty for the first 12 months and 2-3 years with Applecare.

  6. Ramazan
    Trollface

    Motorola ends support for RAZR2 immediately after launch

    No firmware updates, no apps for ya

  7. Nick L

    obsoleted: no parts available from apple...

    It's been unsupported for years. Apple has advised that they will no longer supply parts at any price... As for are some working? Yes, mine is my 'personal' phone. For the past few years it has been effectively banned from the app store but it works, does everything that it did when i used it daily and has fair battery life.

    the only thing that made me change was the Nokia lumia 800.

  8. tfewster
    Facepalm

    IOS 4, released in 2010, didn't run on the original iPhone; As there were no more bug fixes to IOS 3, I'd call that "out of support" after 3 years.

    Even worse, I bought an iPhone 3G in April 2009 just before the 3GS came out; When IOS 4.3 was released in March 2011, it didn't support the 3G. (I always wondered if I could have returned the 3G as "not fit for purpose" under the SOGA, especially as it was on a 24 month contract with O2 ;-)

    1. Michael Jennings

      It's what the hardware can run.

      The trouble with the iPhone 3G is that it had essentially the same internals as the original iPhone (apart from the 3G and GPS being added). This meant that the processor etc were fairly out of date even when it was released, which also meant that the hardware was too slow for many software updates. (It ran iOS 4.0-4.2 but terribly slowly and with many features disabled, which is presumably why Apple gave up on it at 4.3. This is the only time that Apple have discontinued support for a device at a point release of iOS rather than a major version.

      The 3GS on the other hand was an upgrade to almost nothing but the internals. It received some criticism at the time for being a relatively minor upgrade. The 3GS is still running up to date software almost four years later, so the S version was clearly the one to get.

  9. bigfoot780
    FAIL

    Wifi

    My original iphones wifi stopped working after a year making it a paper weight. Yeah revolutionary device there.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wifi

      Don't blame the phone for your stupidity.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wifi

      Perhaps a call to Apple would solved it???

  10. Fuzz

    A few points

    1. I wouldn't call the original iPhone supported. The last version of iOS the phone supported was 3, it hasn't had any updates for years. Most apps in the store don't work on it because they require a newer version of iOS. All that's happened here is the Apple have said they won't repair the phone anymore.

    2. The Edge on the iPhone was never considered to be fast, at the time people laughed at the iPhone for not having 3G. People didn't start to buy iPhones in any serious numbers until the 3G came out which brought decent network speeds and installable apps.

    3. You can't compare the iPhone (a phone) with Windows XP (a version of an operating system) you could maybe compare iOS with XP. The difference here is that Windows XP can still be installed on computers from 2001 when it was released and they will receive updates from Microsoft right up until April 2014.

    The iPhone will be remembered as a game changer but when you actually look back the game only really changed when the 3G was released.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A few points

      Agreed that Edge was super snoozy slow, and 3G was the game changer.

    2. Michael Jennings

      Re: A few points

      >The difference here is that Windows XP can still be installed on computers from 2001

      >when it was released and they will receive updates from Microsoft right up until April 2014.

      If you try installing Windows XP in a computer from 2001, you will find that once you install all the updates, the OS installation will demand more hard disk space and memory for itself than many computers in 2001 actually had. (If you try to install it with an SP3 installation CD, it may not even install for this reason). It's not that realistic to think that many PCs have been in use the full 12 and a half years of XP, or even close to it, at least not without significant hardware upgrades.

      The long life of Windows XP occurred because Microsoft had great difficultly producing a successor to it. Windows XP Home was originally intended to reach end of life in 2006. However, this was extended a number of times, initially because a successor to XP was not even on the market in 2006.

      1. Wayland Sothcott 1

        Re: A few points

        A PC is easy to upgrade. Even a Laptop can have more RAM and more HD. Windows XP will run on some computers made before 2001 all the way up to current computers and probably a bit further.

        A PC will run Linux and that will run on any computer from 1990 to forever. There are many single board embedded computers based on the 386 CPU which run Linux and probably Windows 98.

        The Android ought to be a device that we can treat like a PC and just keep hacking. You can't expect an Apple to be like that.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    N95-8G

    Ah, I used one of the black 8G's for just under 4 years. Brilliant phone with pretty decent battery life (well, 2-3 days, which is good by modern standards). Excellent GPS and maps app. Fitted perfectly in the hand and was a none-too-shabby portable computer as well (for the day).

    The original iPhone was interesting to me, but since it didn't have a keypad I didn't want it. I have slowly come around to touchscreen keyboards, but it still baffles me why the iOS keyboard doesn't visually indicate UPPER or lower case while typing.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: N95-8G

      Funny that - most people manage with normal (physical) keyboards that do not change from upper to lower case. I appreciate it's easier for a virtual keyboard to do it - but seems a bit pointless to me.

      1. Dave's Jubblies
        Thumb Down

        Re: N95-8G

        People manage with physical keys that don't change because they have to press a physical shift key to activate the upper case, pretty bloody obvious if you are about to type an upper case character...

        On a software virtual keyboard, surely it WHY NOT make it display the upper case letters to avoid confusion, it's software... it's easy.

        I presume you are an 'i' device user?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: N95-8G

          My N95 is still in use. 3G, a-GPS, Video Calling, Apps, Micro SD, 5mp f2.8 camera with Carl Zeiss optics, copy & paste, stereo speakers, standard usb port, mms, email, internet, maps, satnav etc...

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: N95-8G

          So the highlighted 'shift' key isn't enough of a visual clue? I agree with you in principle, but it's not as if the current situation is unusable.

          I presume that you are a smug asshat?

    2. dboy

      Re: N95-8G

      The thing apple did was got the networks to bundle data with the iphone, where as if you wanted it on the N95 you paid through the nose.

      So I don't think the original iphone was superior to the N95, but the experience was.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: bundle data with the iphone

        I was on a 3gb with tethering bundle with my N95, and it wasn't expensive.

  12. Lee Taylor
    FAIL

    N95

    "....download speeds slower than the 384 kb/s EDGE achieved in its best moments."

    Strange as the N95 was 3G and supported HSDPA upto 3.6mbps.,so the orignal iPhone was a slouch in reality to other products.

    The N95 was probably the best phone Nokia produced, as all the feaures mentioned it also had hardware accelerated 3D graphics engine through its PowerVR core in the OMAP processor (something the late n96 and n97 lacked).

    Also it had a SIP client for VOIP which came into great use on holidays to get free incomning calls .Friends call my uk voip number using there free evening calls plans,I'd be sat on wifi at the hotel......

    Also it had an infraRed port to. Greatest use I found for that was to hack my LG flat screen to get up the engineers menu to enable the USB playback function using "irRemote S60)

    http://www.avforums.com/forums/tv-technology-smart-tv-3d-ultra-hd-4k/1191680-how-activate-your-usb-player-your-lg-without-firmware-upgrade-downgrade.html

    But it piece de resistance was it made and recived calls with out fail over GSM. We had an office of 4 people, 3 with iPhones and myself with an N95. All on O2 but the guys would regualry get voice mails without the phone ringing when calls always came through to the Nokia........

    1. Lee Taylor

      Re: N95

      ....and the N95 had a decent flash on the camera too....

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: N95

      Yeah, what was with the iPhone and all the missed / dropped calls. I could never have a more than 5 minutes talking to my friend on his, fine with everyone else.

      He of course denies this happened and blames some other factor.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What a difference six years make

    There are probably some who wonder why on earth I wanted (and stuck with) a Nokia N95 between 2007-10, and an N8 from 2010 to a couple of months ago, when to some minds the iPhone was clearly the future for smartphones.

    Well, for me, this article is a timely reminder of why - yes, the iP's giant touchscreen was certainly a leap forwards in 2007 (and six years later, most mobiles are basically small touchscreen tablets), but unlike Apple's new baby, the N95 boasted 3G, WiFi and two cameras (including a then-massive 5Mp main one) and could run native apps. As I saw it: why take all those steps back in functionality, just for bragging rights in the coffee shop?

    For me personally, it took until the 4S for the iPhone to reach the point where I'd even consider jumping from the Nokia ship to get one (and that was partly because of Elop's burning platforms). I'm pretty happy with the 4S now, but it's easy to forget just how far the iPhone has had to develop since that first model.

    Time marches on...

  14. jubtastic1
    Happy

    Still got mine

    My three year old plays with it, runs Jetpack Joyride & temple run just fine and he's pretty damn good at it.

    Agree with the comments about support ending years ago though, no idea what part of it is still under support until June.

  15. Dabooka
    Go

    Just retired my 2G

    Back in November when I got a Razr i. Got it form my mum, and still works well. In the same draw as my wife's N95, also a great bit of kit. Out of the two, the N95 wins my vote.

  16. IHateWearingATie

    EDGE? Really?

    I seem to remember that O2 had real problems with this as they had to install EDGE specially for the iPhone. One of the reasons I stayed away from the iPhone at first was it didn't have 3G (like other posters, I had a Nokia N95 - what a great phone). I was tethering my phone to my laptop working on a client site at the time and not only did the iPhone not support that at first, EDGE would have been too slow to be useful.

    However, O2 are still the only network offering visual voicemail, as they installed it as part of the exclusive deal with Apple. Come one Voda - install visual voicemail!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: EDGE? Really?

      EE have started offering Visual Voicemail too.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Are we STILL talking about 2007!

    I'll just leave you there.

  18. nuked

    Someone who still owns and uses an original iPhone needs more than support...

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bullshit article.

    The N95 was more featureful than the iPhone by a mile, and HTC's top-end WinMo phones moreso still. For example, the HTC Kaiser from 2007: 3G/HSDPA, aGPS, proper web browser and flash, MS Office compatible office suite, 3D acceleration, stacks of Apps, IR, multi-megapixel camera (albeit admittedly crap as its an HTC), front camera for video calling (over 3G or WiFi and including over Skype), removable storage up to the limits of SDHC, removable battery. It also had stuff like RS232 which is great for plugging into other devices and rumour had it it could do video out though I never found that out. And it could be used as a modem/mouse/keyboard/extra screen for my desktop. The Hermes from before that could do almost the same, I think it just lacked GPS or something (which was annoying as it was built into some earlier HTCs).

    The iPhone still cant match all these features, and took until the 4s before it was comparable with 2007's smartphone market. The only improvement it offered was the nicer touch screen.

    Apple's one true innovation was being able to market properly, which HTC still can't do.

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