<story><title>Fertile Ground</title><url>http://www.marco.org/2013/06/11/fertile-ground</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jmduke</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t like the idea that four years is a prohibitively long time for a device that I spend hundreds of dollars on.</text></item><item><author>forrestthewoods</author><text>You mean the four year old non-retina iphone 3gs? I think it&amp;#x27;s safe to take that device behind the barn to retire forever. Few tears will be shed.</text></item><item><author>btipling</author><text>Except for all those not so old iPhones that are stuck on iOS 6 forever.</text></item><item><author>chasing</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not fragmentation. Within a year, the vast majority of iOS users will be on iOS 7. It&amp;#x27;s evolution.</text></item><item><author>btipling</author><text>It seems hypocritical to laud fragmentation when it happens in iOS and decry it in Android. These changes seem similar to the Android differences in gingerbread and post-honeycomb. The resulting effect on developers will be the same. iOS 7 has made it apparent which bloggers are unable or unwilling to be fair in their criticism when it comes to Apple. The mismatched gradients on the new icons are beautiful to them, the wire frame and confusing UI elements are revolutionary, and fragmentation is simply just creating fertile ground for change. Great.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ghshephard</author><text>The reality of Mobile Device evolution is that four-mobile-phone-years is roughly equivalent to ten-desktop-years or six-laptop-years.&lt;p&gt;And, let&amp;#x27;s be clear - it&amp;#x27;s only a prohibitively long time if you wish to continue to get the new &lt;i&gt;feature release&lt;/i&gt; platforms - indeed, it&amp;#x27;s only Today, June 11, 2013, that the original iPhone, released in 2007, is now being obsoleted by Apple [1], a full five years after it was discontinued.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.macrumors.com&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;29&amp;#x2F;original-iphone-will-soon-be-obsolete-in-apple-retail-stores&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.macrumors.com&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;29&amp;#x2F;original-iphone-will-soo...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Fertile Ground</title><url>http://www.marco.org/2013/06/11/fertile-ground</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jmduke</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t like the idea that four years is a prohibitively long time for a device that I spend hundreds of dollars on.</text></item><item><author>forrestthewoods</author><text>You mean the four year old non-retina iphone 3gs? I think it&amp;#x27;s safe to take that device behind the barn to retire forever. Few tears will be shed.</text></item><item><author>btipling</author><text>Except for all those not so old iPhones that are stuck on iOS 6 forever.</text></item><item><author>chasing</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not fragmentation. Within a year, the vast majority of iOS users will be on iOS 7. It&amp;#x27;s evolution.</text></item><item><author>btipling</author><text>It seems hypocritical to laud fragmentation when it happens in iOS and decry it in Android. These changes seem similar to the Android differences in gingerbread and post-honeycomb. The resulting effect on developers will be the same. iOS 7 has made it apparent which bloggers are unable or unwilling to be fair in their criticism when it comes to Apple. The mismatched gradients on the new icons are beautiful to them, the wire frame and confusing UI elements are revolutionary, and fragmentation is simply just creating fertile ground for change. Great.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sosuke</author><text>Is there another company that is updating 4 year old phones? Is there an Android phone released with 2.2 that can run 4.2? I think Apple&amp;#x27;s backwards compatibility track record is the best there is, but here&amp;#x27;s to hoping for better!</text></comment>