Apple apps and games are currently being phased out. Meaningful applications are thus lost to iPhone users. Apple’s justification is not one hundred percent plausible and causes criticism. Last but not least, there should be problems for users of older hardware.
Apple takes a drastic step and removes more and more apps and games from the App Store for iPhone and iPad. Not because they no longer work, but because they are simply too old and no longer receive updates. So if an app “hasn’t been updated for a long time”, it runs the risk of being removed from the store (source: Twitter, @lazerwalker via ifun.de).
Apple forces developers to make pointless updates: apps and games for the iPhone are thrown out
The reason for Apple’s actions is probably aimed at so-called “abandonware”, apps for which the developer no longer offers any support and for which there will therefore be no more updates in the future. In and of itself a laudable process, but it also affects developers who see their apps or games as finished. However, closed does not mean forgotten, because these applications still work perfectly and do not need an update at all. Apple still insists.
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This leads to partly unsolvable challenges for the developers. So it is quite possible that the applications affected by the development or their frameworks and development environments no longer exist. A slight adjustment of the program code is therefore ruled out, but a new development with new means would often not be worthwhile. Ergo: The app disappears, although it would still be good.
Big problem: Older hardware with fewer and fewer apps
This also leads to another problem step by step. If you are still using older hardware, whether iPhone or iPad, you will hardly find any apps for older system versions of iOS, also because they have already been removed. Users have to accept Apple’s behavior because there is no official way to install older apps outside of the App Store. The calls for the closed system to be opened up and for the app store requirement to be abolished are getting louder and louder.