>> developers making mistakes and publishing incompatible updates

If Apple thinks your device is old enough to end support (and Apple's pretty good at pushing updates for old devices for quite a while) why would devs keep trying to support you (when the app probably only cost $1-2 and 5 years have passed).

Why are the only two options devs supporting them or their app breaking? I have software that is close to 20 years old that is both unsupported and still works.

If you don't update the app and don't update the OS there's no reason it shouldn't continue working. You update the OS and you run the risk of deprecated API's getting called.

Considering that the app store allows device and os specific versions to coexist, there's no reason that requires a dev to break an old game. When it happens, it's typically because the dev made an error and added a feature but incorrectly claimed it was compatible with older ios or device versions.

>> the app store allows device and os specific versions to coexist

It does? How does this work (I'm an iOS dev but been out of it for a little while so genuinely curious)?

I don't know the implementation specifics. But I can go out to the app store on my old iPad and download older versions of my apps. The problem is when the older version was updated incorrectly and is incompatible with my device/iOS version.

I taped my now updateless and painfully slow iPad 3 to my kitchen wall facing the counter. It's got a web browser for recipes, can play YouTube, and can play music via Bluetooth to my stereo.

It's pretty great for that use. I regret not having thought of it before.

I still have the first-gen iPad. The batteries barely hold a charge, but it works otherwise.

Even though it is comparatively heavy, I still really like the build quality.

I have a first generation iPad. I rediscovered it about four months ago after I moved. I reset it and could download and use older versions of Netflix, Hulu, Plex, and a few other video streaming devices. I even used a version of Google Drive to read PDFs.

The battery lasts about 5-6 hours for video playback. Apple lets you redoenload older compatible versions.

My dad still uses my iPad 1 that I gave him. Best present (for me) ever :-) My dad and computers never got along. To my way of thinking, it's pretty pokey but he uses it all the time still.

But it takes about five years to stop releasing iOS updates for particular device.

It's almost always because the device doesn't have enough RAM to support the new OS update.

That's part of what I'm disappointed about today: no RAM bump for the 9.7 Pro, and not clear whether the plain iPad is at 1 GB or 2.

Then that's good news for those who own the current model, isn't it? It will take longer for their tablet to obsolesce via OS update.

The 1st generation iPad was released April 2010. The last version of iOS for that hardware was iOS 5.1.1, released May 2012. That's just barely 2 years later, not 5.