Apple’s new software drops support for some older (and not that old) hardware
Apple plans to launch new versions of its smartphone, tablet, and desktop operating systems this fall, with beta releases of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS 13 Ventura scheduled to drop in July.
But the company is also dropping support for some older devices. Still using an iPhone 7 or an older model? No iOS 16 for you. Somewhat more surprisingly though, macOS Ventura will only run on Macs released in 2017 or later.
Apple has traditionally done a much better job than most other phone makers when it comes to offering long-term support for older smartphones. This time around Apple may be ending OS updates for two generations of phones (the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 were both supported when iOS 15 rolled out last year). But since the iPhone 8 was released in 2017, that means Apple will offer a major operating update this fall for a phone that’s been around for five years.
But things are a little weirder on the Mac side of things. Apple says the operating system will run on:
- iMac from 2017 or later
- iMac Pro from 2017 or later
- MacBook from 2017 or later
- MacBook Pro from 2017 or later
- MacBook Air from 2018 or later
- Mac Mini from 2018 or later
- Mac Pro from 2019 or later
That means that Apple is still continuing to support Macs with Intel chips… but only Macs released within the past five years. It wouldn’t be surprising if Apple eventually ended support for all Intel-powered Macs, but that hasn’t happened yet.
What is a little surprising is that, as Ars Technica points out, the company has pulled the plug on support for the 2013 Mac Pro – a high-performance desktop computer that Apple was still selling up until 2019. So if you bought one of those very expensive computers from Apple three years ago, you won’t be able to run the latest version of macOS on it this fall.
It’s worth keeping in mind that Apple isn’t the only company ending support for computers with older hardware though. Windows 11 has pretty strict system requirements that mean, among other things, it isn’t officially supported on computers released before 2017 either.
The upgrade situation looks a little better for iPad owners, with Apple offering upgrades to all models of the iPad Pro, for example. That includes first-gen models that were released as far back as 2015. If you have a non-pro model though, you’ll need something a bit newer, as these are the models that will support iPadOS 16:
- iPad Air, 3rd-gen or later (2019)
- iPad, 5th-gen or later (2017)
- iPad mini, 5th-gen or later (2019)