IMHO Ipad sales are declining because Apple’s business model is to sell you an expensive product and then abandon support for that still working model of the product. One must assume Apple expects you to purchase the newest version at that point. Why? Apple will just continue to discard us, over and over. This household says, “no more!” Apple can pound sand!
Does it suddenly stop working?
Apple supports devices for five to six years with OS updates.
Google Android. . . good luck with any updates at all on any makers' devices except for perhaps the top two or three brands. . . and there you generally have to go looking for it yourself.
Even without continue OS support which is not as important on an Apple device as you may think, the Apple devices' resale value for exceeds any other makers' resale value at the end of support life, typically retaining 40% to 60% of its original retail price, so it offsets the cost of replacing the Apple device with a new one which is supported. Competing brands are usually only suitable for recycling or landfill at the same point in their life. Statistically, Apple devices have a longer useful lifespan that the competition. Every independent study has discovered that the cost of ownership of Apple devices is lower than the competition when all other costs are accounted for, including resale value.
So no, Apple does not expect everyone to suddenly buy a new Apple device when the End of Support Life is reached. They certainly would like you to.
On the other hand, it is a standard industry practice:
Microsoft will kill some Windows 7 and 8.1 support in April (Apr 10 Patch Tuesday)
Windows 8.1 was released on October 1, 2013 and Microsoft is killing support for it less than 4 years later???? Will you also say that "Microsoft can pound sand!"???
Apple is especially good at pissing off customers so they will never want to by an Apple product. I see thousands of them on Swordmakers threads.
The reason I bought my first Mac- after 24 years of being a Windows loving, Apple hating person - was because my son had, once again, gone to a gaming cheat code site that was a front for the latest and greatest virus.
Even though I was “protected” by Norton, the virus still infected the computer. After researching on the web, the best advice was format the drive and reinstall Windows. There goes the weekend...
My wife then suggested that I give the kids my computer and we buy a new one for me. Vista had just come out and sucked. I wasn’t thrilled with my options and my wife suggested I look at Macs. She might have well asked me to drink poison.
After much bitching on my part, she dragged me to the Apple store. The youth pastor of our church worked there. I told him the hundred reasons I didn’t want a Mac, mostly because I used Windows-only programs way too much.
He walked me to a Mac Pro, hit a key and Windows popped up. I asked if this was dual-booted. He said no, Windows was running simultaneously with OSX. He press another key and Windows was in a window on the Mac.
That did it. I could have my cake and eat it too. All the goodness of Mac hardware, all the Windows compatibility I needed.
That was the chink in the armor. iPods and iPhones soon followed. We bought iMacs for the office. A Mac Mini became our server. The cool part is - and you won’t understand until you do it yourself - Macs, especially together, just work.
I remember the trials and tribulations of Windows networking, with every version being a little different (Home, Professional, 32 bit, 64 bit, etc.). Nothing like that in the Mac world. Everything works together seamlessly and easily.
So go ahead and live in your Windows-centric FUD filled world. I will enjoy my Macs.
BTW...just sold my ten year old Mac Pro for $400. While it wouldn’t update to the latest operating system, it was still very functional for web surfing, email, word processing, etc...