tvOS 18 Compatible With Apple TV HD Released Nearly Nine Years Ago
www.macrumors.com
Here is something that Apple TV HD owners probably didn't expect when they purchased the device all the way back in 2015: it continues to receive...
  • shinratdr@lemmy.ca
    3·
    4 months ago

    While this is a good thing, there are two things to point out:

    1. It was released in 2015 but it was SOLD until Oct 2022. So… yeah. Some people owned it for 9 years but others bought it brand new from an Apple Store at full price less than 2 years ago. So this is about the least they could do in that regard.

    2. The ATV HD is powered by the A8 chip, which also powers the original HomePod. The HomePods run audioOS, which is built on tvOS. That was sold from 2018 to 2021. So maintaining A8 support in tvOS actually covers two devices that were sold until fairly recently, and the HomePod was quite expensive and also would be quite expensive to replace.

    So yeah, while I do appreciate Apple’s long support period for devices, when it exceeds 5-6 years there is usually an underlying reason like this.