App Compatibility (iOS & Device)

[LooN3y]

how many old versions should my app be compatible with?

 

so far im thinking just iOS5, and iOS6, since I've read that close to 90% of all iOS users update their devices.

 

 

and when iOS7 comes out, for future apps and versions should i let the app be backwards compatible with iOS5? given that the original iPad and iPhone 3G is going to be stuck with iOS5.

 

does people know how the percentage of people using older devices? how long will i have to be able to support these older devices and OS?

[TH3L4UGH1NGM4N]

Honestly, it's highly dependent on what features is your app gonna use from the newer SDKs and if they are already implemented into the old ones. For instance, you could be making a simple openGL ES game that uses the same functions from openGL ES from iOS 3 right up to iOS 6. The latter versions such as iOS 4 and downwards gets the cut when you're going to implement things like using the Notification Center then you're bound to iOS 5 and onwards. Generally though most developers try to keep things compatible with the highest number of OS versions they can without the lack of features in an OS being a stopping factor. You could always test to see if there isn't anything noticeable that you're using while building against the newer SDK then you could try building against an older one to see if you're app runs on the older one as well.

 

At some point though you can't always be coding for legacy devices because technology is always on a forward roll to above and beyond.