Before you get too excited about the upcoming release of iOS 10, first you'd better make sure that your device is supported.
See also: iOS 10 is still a mess, but at least it's a snappy, stable mess
iPhon
Here is a complete list of iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch devices that support iOS 10:
- iPad 4th gen
- iPad Air
- iPad Air 2
- iPad Pro
- iPad mini 2
- iPad mini 3
- iPad mini 4
- iPod touch 6th
- iPhone 5
- iPhone 5c
- iPhone 5s
- iPhone SE
- iPhone 6/6 Plus
- iPhone 6s/6s Plus
- iPhone 7/7 Plus
This means the end of the road for a number of devices that are currently supported by iOS 9:
- iPad 2
- iPad 3rd gen
- iPad mini
- iPhone 4s
- iPod touch 5th gen
No iOS 10 support means no more updates, and no more updates means that not only will these devices begin accumulating unpatched security vulnerabilities, but app developers will slowly phase out support for them.
The hardware might still work, but the operating system is being left to rot.
Some of these devices, specifically from the iPad camp, are really popular. In fact, iOS 10 could send as many as 40 percent of existing iPads to the scrap pile.
The iPad 2, in particular, was a very popular device (it was sold between March 2011 and March 2014), and is only one percentage point behind the iPad Air (18 percent share, compared to 17 percent).
It's possible these numbers have changed a bit since the data was compiled in March, as Apple has obviously sold more iPads, but given that it only sells about 10 million a quarter (cumulatively, some 320 million iPads have been sold in total), whatever was sold after March isn't going to shift the needle by much.
No matter how we break down this data, it's clear that iOS 10 will make a lot of iPads obsolete.
And if your device is being used in a BYOD setting, then not being able to upgrade to iOS 10 puts it on borrowed time, and it will soon be identified as a security risk due to the fact it will no longer be receiving updates.
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See also: