Good for Apple - I’m all for more consumer choice. I got an I-Pad II and loved it until the last Apple OS upgrade rendered the unit almost unuseable. Apple tech support could only recommend that I upgrade my unit (ie. buy a newer tablet). Well, I’m old school and don’t think a $500 product should only have a four year shelf life, so I think my next tablet will be a Samsung running Droid.
There were reports that a small minority of iPad 2 users had some problems with iOS 8, but the vast majority did not. This indicates that it was a problem with some individual things on so,e people’s devices or some errant software causing problems. You’ll find out that now people have gotten their iPad 2 models working okay.
But, in terms of the “shelf life” of the iPads, if you look at the processors, and the RAM, you’ll see why there is an apparent “shelf life” as it shows now. That iPad 2 works exactly the sa,e as it did when it was new. Nothing has changed there.
SO ... you can use it exactly as you originally got it. HOWEVER, if one wants the “power” and “RAM” of the new machines, then yes, you’ll have to buy a new machine. And users would not want it any other way ... than to have Apple give them the MOST POWERFUL iPAD that Apple can make for today!
Update it to the latest iOS 8.1.3 released yesterday. My girlfriend has an iPad 2, and it works great. iOS 8.1.3 made it work even better.
And it's your expectation that a Samsung tablet will keep up with more than four years' worth of OS upgrades? Good luck with that.