Interestingly, the same phenomenon that makes people write those emails can make them "double down" on a tech choice. A friend defaults anti-Apple so refused to buy the "Jesus phone". After four Android phones, each less reliable than the last while his sister's still rocking an iPhone 3GS, he switched last week ... To Windows Phone 7. He just paid $500 for a phone that, 3 days later, was announced would not be upgradable to Windows Phone 8. All because he is determined that Apple users are smug fanboys.
(Personally, I think he should have gotten a Google Galaxy Nexus if he wanted his sister's mockery about constant obsolescence and non working hardware to stop.)
He detests Apple products because he feels that Apple users allow themselves to be defined by Apple through their purchasing decisions. So, he refuses to buy an Apple phone -- even going to ridiculous extents to exercise a non-Apple option -- ironically, allowing himself to be defined by Apple products!
If Apple goes left he will go right, if they go up he goes down; he is still deciding his tech choices based on Apple's choices, only he's navigating the whitespace where Apple fans navigate the blackspace. If he were truly free, he would simply choose the best phone for his needs and lifestyle. Instead he is as slavishly bound to Apple as the people he mocks.
Casual Apple user here - it entertains me to no end how quickly everyone is to denote all Apple users to be fanboys to such an extent that they are downright anti-apple fanboys.
In reality I think more Apple users would ditch Apple as soon as something significantly better came along, than Android users (who chose to use Android, not people who bought a "generic smartphone") would ditch Android should something better come along.
As a casual PC user, some of the stereotypes are not unfounded. In my experience I know of quite a few pro-Apple and anti-Apple extremists. Just looking at them quarrel makes me wonder what do they put in those products?
Android fanboys pick on me because I bought an iPhone and I should really have chosen Android because bla bla bla. I have an iPhone 1st gen (bought in 2007) ...
What I noticed though is that since there are great Android phones on the market, the number of fanboys seems to have diminished quite a lot. It is as if having some real reason to like Android, they don't need to crusade anymore. People are weird.
iOS 6 won't run with most features on 2 year old hardware.
Windows Phone 8 - Won't run on < 1 year old hardware.
ICS Can run, but doesn't because of carriers.
The problem is it's dickery, pure and simple. There is no technical reason those add ons can't run on the 4-non-S. I'm running a freaking Siri app from Cydia and it works just as well as the real thing. The battery life isn't reduced any appreciable amount, the phone isn't slower or more prone to running out of memory.
Yes yes I know Apple doesn't owe people free upgrades. It still bugs me.
First of all, all of those are marvels of technology, a state of the art unbelievable even 10 years ago, and would be considered pure Star Trek level technology 20 years ago.
Second,
(a): not being able to run with SOME features (where did you got thay "with most" features from?) on "2 year old hardware" is not the same at all to (b): "not being able to run at all on < 1 year all hardware" or (c): "could run, but will not because of carriers".
What's so bad about replacing the phone every couple years? I'd rather these phone manufacturers moved things forward than worry too much about what the non early adopter crowd think. You don't have to update to ios6, nothing's forcing you too.
You write as though your phone came with some kind of guarantee it would support future software.
Just because you can't upgrade to iosX doesn't make what you have shite.
Well, besides an environment impact, and the fact that we're running out of resources and should be trying to get the most out of these devices?
No, I don't. I'm listing the three competitor OS's and explaining that they all suck.
Yes, it does. Because there is nothing wrong with the device from a technological standpoint, and it most certainly can handle the tasks. There are a few new things in iOS 6 that are going to be rolled into almost every new application, and they aren't in iOS5. So as a developer, I can either use Apples version and reduce my headaches by 1000 fold, or I can support iPad 1. This means that the list of available software is going to diminish significantly.
Up voted you elsewhere, but you're claiming that flagship 2012 software features could or should fit into a device sporting a single core ARM processor with 256MB of RAM and a GPU that is verging on obsolescence. We're an order of magnitude further out in performance AND userbase, and a trillion dollar market is up for grabs. This is the new life cycle.
Not every feature, sure. But there are a lot of features that don't have an increased hardware requirement. I know this because I use TomTom turn by turn on the iPhone 4 right now, same maps data that's on iOS 6. I also use video calling ove 3g on the iPhone 4. So yea, it's a little hard to swallow why these features are being excluded, well except for the money. I'd even accept 3 years for a tablet, but not two.
(Personally, I think he should have gotten a Google Galaxy Nexus if he wanted his sister's mockery about constant obsolescence and non working hardware to stop.)