App store says iPhone 4 or above for my app

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

Hi,

Just had my first app added to the apple app store but when a friend tried to download it on her iPhone 3GS, it said it was iPhone 4 and above.

How can I change this as it works fine on a 3GS ?

Tested it on a 3GS and iPad 1 and it works fine.

I tried to download a Corona made app on my iPad 1 today and it said the app needed a front facing camera, so it wouldn’t let me. Tried it on my mates iPhone 4 and it worked but the app doesn’t use the camera function at all.

My app might have the same problem, I have asked her verify exactly what message she got.

Dave [import]uid: 117617 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 322510[/import]

#2

What version of Corona was this built with? [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 89806[/import]

#3

Hi,

Am using 2012.750 (2012.12.8)

EDIT: My friend just got back to me (she lives in Australia) and the message was this app needs 4.3, so false alarm.

Sorry about that, her first message was that it said it needs iPhone 4.

Dave [import]uid: 117617 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 89836[/import]

#4

Any daily build 707 or later drops ARMv6 processor support for all platforms, and consequently bumps the minimum iOS version to 4.3.

You can always build using the last stable release of Corona to support any iOS devices on 3.1 or later. I like to keep a copy of 706 on hand (alongside the latest daily build) for situations where I want to deploy a version for my testers on legacy devices.

Last daily build to support older versions of iOS: Mac | Windows

But yeah, sounds like your friend just needs to do a software update on her phone :slight_smile: [import]uid: 87138 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 89852[/import]

#5

Yeah cheers for that.

I panicked because she said iPhone 4 or above but it looks like she is just on a older iOS version. Think she has a iPhone 3G, so can’t update past 4.2.1

Am not to bothered about that to be honest.

Dave [import]uid: 117617 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 89854[/import]

#6

I AM bothered by this. Mobile is all about catering to as many people as possible. Why can’t we target older iOS versions…many people will be willing to pay 99 cents for my game, but not be bothered with updating their iOS. [import]uid: 122310 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 90008[/import]

#7

Hey aisaksen, if you take a look at stats you will see that percentage wise almost no one is running anything below 4.3.0 now.

Also worth remembering is that a person who still owns an iPhone3G is not so likely to be buying apps to begin with as someone with a newer model.

Peach :slight_smile:

PS - To clarify, this is Apple’s move - they have dropped support for iPhone3G is latest Xcode. [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 90072[/import]

#8

@aisaksen,
that is one of the disadvantages, there is No more ARMv6 Support for wither the Android or the iOS with Corona anymore, so if you want the mail, new facebook and no Papaya/crapware (because Ansca had a fallout with them) you have to use the latest builds stable or otherwise and they do not support ARMv6 anymore.

I agree with you that there are still a large number of users on iPhone3GS in fact many are still there because their contracts are going to expire soon, but the point is that they are perfectly fine phones and a large market to ignore.

Unfortunately, we the developers have to be driven by the changes from Ansca based on their monetization motives rather than what makes sense for us. [import]uid: 3826 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 90152[/import]

#9

iPhone 3GS is fine, it’s iPhone 3G that cant run 4.3 or higher.

Don’t forget this also effects iPods. I have a iPod touch that runs 4.2.1 and I can’t upgrade to 4.3 as it’s to old but it’s a iPod, it still works as a iPod and still runs almost every game I have downloaded so am not even thinking about upgrading it.

Dave [import]uid: 117617 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 90153[/import]

#10

Hi Peach,

Thanks for writing back and for the additional info about why Corona had to drop support for these.

if Apple is fully endorsing that everyone drop support for 4.2.1 by eliminating support for older devices in Xcode 4.3 then I definitely get the decision. If its good enough for Apple, its good enough for me.

However, I poked around on the web for a while this morning and couldn’t find any info saying that armv6 support was dropped from Xcode 4.3. Do you know where this info came from?

Also, can you link or post some stats that back up the fact that people most people don’t run <= 4.2.1 anymore? I looked around and found it was still around 5-10% (though that was before xmas 2011). Also, I’d suspect the number is higher than reported because iPods aren’t net connected as often so they wouldn’t report back as much.

5-10% isn’t too much, but there are also the follow on effects of making a sale…you get friends seeing that person playing the game, etc.

Thanks,

-Aaron
[import]uid: 122310 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 90195[/import]

#11

Hey Aaron,

Few resources;
iOS page on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_SDK
Thread on another forum (Unity, great 3D SDK) discussing changes: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/80573-iOS-4.3/page2
There are also a number of threads on stackoverflow.

That said if you get dev emails from Apple you’ll find some info in one of those, I believe from late last year.

Re users on < 4.3.0 there are other threads on this that you could perhaps dig up? If you don’t have luck I’ll go find them for you :wink:

I believe the percent of people running < 4.3.0 is around 6% although I would need to recheck threads and resources, etc.

Peach :slight_smile: [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 90404[/import]

#12

The people who are really downloading apps and therefore your customers are the same people who upgrade their OS, and even their devices to some extent.

So by requiring 4.3, you’re essentially eliminating headaches and bad reviews caused by older, slower devices, while getting the benefits of Ansca being able to take advantage of new iOS features without worrying about Armv6 too. And yes, in return, you are giving up a small portion of your user base who are still active on an older device (iPod Touch 2g and iPhone 3G).

I have an old iPod Touch (it works great but I rarely use it for apps anymore because I know it won’t deliver the best experience) and some of my beta team have older devices too. So it was a tough call to switch to the new builds for distribution, but I believe it’s the right move to make.

If you really need to target older devices, you still can, but the need for that in the future should really be very minimal as these legacy devices continue to drop further out of the picture. Ultimately I think this is a good thing for Ansca to allow more rapid feature deployment. Which makes Corona better for us, which makes our apps even better for users. [import]uid: 87138 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 90417[/import]

#13

Thanks for the feedback everyone. @Peach, you probably have better things to do than track down these leads as its far more important that you help us all with technical issues. I do appreciate you taking the time out to help on this. :slight_smile:

I did look at both of those sites and they don’t say anything about dropping support for iOS 4.2 in Xcode 4.3. I know that apple likes to hide things, and i’m sure they don’t have a 4.2 simulator anymore, but that doesn’t mean you can’t actually compile armv6 anymore. I’m afraid to install Xcode 4.3 to see for myself because I want to continue to support 4.x devices for my other apps.

@Revaerie: i agree that new features are important, but I don’t why you can’t just have some modules unavailable for older phones. I’ve been in mobile for a very long time, and what i’ve noticed is that if you continue to support older devices, then when everyone else moves to supporting only the new devices, there is a period of time where you can do good business by supporting the people that everyone else has forgotten.

With Corona, I’m not trying to make bleeding edge graphics that require an iPhone 4S…I want to make casual games that are quick to program and widely distributed. Part of the beauty of using a simple SDK like Corona is that I don’t have to worry about all the details of working on all these phones…I leave that to Anscamobile (and I pay them $350 a year to do it for me).

I would hope there is some easy thing that can be done to re-enable 4.x…but I surely wouldn’t want it to be a month long project that eats up developer resources with could be used for better support elsewhere. But if it was just to avoid a week of work or something, i’d rather have it put back in. [import]uid: 122310 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 90493[/import]

#14

Well there’s no stopping you using an old, unsupported version of Corona for developing until there’s no more support for them in XCode :slight_smile: [import]uid: 10389 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 90639[/import]

#15

aisaksen - I don’t mind trying to track things down if people can’t find them, this is a relevant issue and it’s no less important than a technical problem :slight_smile:

RE the links, go to iOS wiki and do a ctrl+f for “4.3”, I’m pretty sure it’s there - if not will look for correct page this evening. (I’m a little rusty, most of these pages I found late last year.)

It doesn’t mean you can’t compile, no - it just means support has been dropped. As Jason said you can use an older version of Corona, such as the latest stable release (704) to build. (Although I wouldn’t update Xcode past 4.2 in this case.)

SO - you can still build it is just Apple is dropping support.

Peach :slight_smile: [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 90653[/import]

#16

I just installed Xcode 4.3.1 on my mac, and I was able to build an application for iOS 3.1.2 and above with no issues. All I had to do is go to Project, set iOS Deployment Target to 3.1.2 and everything built just fine.

So I think you should be able to support iOS 4.x (but maybe there is another reason like its causing bugs or something on your end). [import]uid: 122310 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 93072[/import]

#17

It will build fine, you just can’t install it on anything less than 4.3, even with that line in your build settings.

Dave [import]uid: 117617 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 93240[/import]

#18

@ thedavebaxter - just to clarify, you are correct that an application built with the latest Corona SDK will not install on anything less than iOS 4.3. However, the reason given for this limitation was that Xcode 4.3 doesn’t make builds for anything less than iOS 4.3. This is not true: I just built an app for iOS 3.1 using Xcode 4.3 and installed it on a 3GS running iOS 4.2.1.
[import]uid: 122310 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 93283[/import]

#19

@aisaksen

“I just built an app for iOS 3.1 using Xcode 4.3 and installed it on a 3GS running iOS 4.2.1.”

i can conform, in xcode its easy enough to set architectures: armv6, ios deployment: ios 4.2 / required device capabilities: armv6.

and build apps for ipods and iphone3, therefor it would be nice to do this in corona also.

[import]uid: 89663 topic_id: 22510 reply_id: 99129[/import]