Ever since WWDC iOS developers have been struggling with the question of how to handle the transition to iOS 7. Most pressing is the question of which legacy version of iOS to support along with adoption of iOS 7. My opinion on this question has oscillated back and forth quite a bit in the preceding 2 months.
While still basking in the warm afterglow of WWDC I charged forth with 100% adoption of iOS 7, legacy be forgotten. Once I got back to my desk and began the task of actually working with iOS 7 I found that supporting 6.1 along with 7.0 wasn’t nearly as fraught with peril as I had originally suspected.
The nature of my apps is such that the core, underlying technologies I am using were largely unchanged. The UI and structure definitely needed an overhaul but the core of the app didn’t. This experience allowed me to weaken my position and let me think that I could manage legacy support with only a meager overhead.
Today, I’ve reverted my position again. I am going to be aggressively adopting iOS 7 exclusively in my apps.
This change is mostly a result not so much of the technical or business implications of supporting legacy versions but of quality assurance needs. I have been able to manage working out the technical needs of supporting both versions but I have found that the time and energy required to test and validate the applications on both is becoming too much of a burden.
My (hopefully) overly conservative estimate for when I need to have my apps ready is September 9th. Which as of writing puts me at 17 business days left. I simply don’t have the time to polish and prepare my final versions on multiple platforms.
As a result my upcoming app Pod Wrangler, Feed Wrangler and Check the Weather will be iOS 7 only for their next major updates.
When he reached the New World, Cortez burned his ships. As a result his crew was well motivated.
— The Hunt for Red October