Apple Plans End Of Support For iPhone 5 and 5C in iOS 10.3.2

Apple appears to be stepping up its efforts in getting users onto newer iPhones by planning to end support for 32-bit devices, which would include the iPhone 5.

Tech specialist Zeph McLearan made the discovery after looking into the code of the iOS 10.3.2 beta update – which was made available to developers shortly after this week’s release of iOS 10.3 -where there is no mention of any older devices running 32-bit processors.

The update only included more modern 64-bit phones and tablets, signalling the end of the road for the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and the fourth-generation iPad.

End of support

Such a move by Apple would essentially make older devices useless and vulnerable to hacking, as users would not be able to download the latest apps or official Apple patches.

Although this wouldn’t be the first time that Apple has ended support for older devices, news.com.au points out that such moves usually accompanies  a major iOS update rather than an iterative step like iOS 10.3.2.

For example, when Apple introduced iOS 10 it ended support for the iPhone 4S, first iPad mini and the fifth-generation iPod touch, so it would make sense for the end of 32-bit device support to coincide with the release of iOS 11 at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.

Killing support for older devices has quickly become a key consideration for tech companies due to the security vulnerabilities that arise, which hackers and cyber criminals are of course only too happy to exploit.

Firefox, for example, ended support for the Windows XP and Vista operating systems earlier this month and Microsoft recently encouraged users to move onto Windows 10 after warning about the “enourmous dangers” of staying on Windows 7.

Quiz: How well do you know Apple?