What the death of 32-bit iOS could mean for Apple’s hardware and software

Andrew Cunningham

Among many other things, iOS 10.3 makes it clear that the end of the road is near for 32-bit iOS apps. This has been coming for a while-all apps and updates submitted for App Store approval since mid-2015 have needed to include 64-bit support, and Apple has been pledging to purge the App Store of abandonware since last fall. Pretty soon, Apple will simply go one step further and make it so that older 32-bit code simply can't run on iDevices.

Putting aside that this spells the end for all kinds of old, unmaintained games and other apps from the early days of the smartphone and App Store, Apple's complete transition to 64-bit is a unique and interesting technical achievement. Here's the complete timeline of the transition, to date:

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