Confirmed! Apple will completely ban 32-bit applications, 200,000 apps will be removed from the shelves

With the release of iOS 11 this year, Apple has decided that iOS 11 will stop supporting 32-bit applications. Now 32-bit applications no longer appear in the App Store search results and can only be accessed through direct links. For most users, this means that these applications basically do not exist. Recently, Apple has continued to increase its efforts to ban 32-bit applications on a large scale. This time it is on the PC side. Apple has decided to no longer accept 32-bit Mac application submissions starting next year.

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Now it seems that the 32-bit phaseout is a done deal. With the launch of the iPhone 5s in September 2013, 64-bit applications were first supported, and since then Apple has gradually moved all apps to this standard. Some time ago, Apple asked developers to provide new apps with 64-bit support. Apple began to remind users that if an app is 32-bit, it may reduce device performance.

Since there are a number of 32-bit software in the App Store that have not been updated since 2015, when you try to open a 32-bit application on iOS11, the program will not run, and the user will see a pop-up window saying that the application needs to be upgraded to support iOS11. At WWDC17, Apple announced plans to start phasing out 32-bit Mac App Store applications. Starting in January 2018, Apple requires all new Mac applications submitted to the Mac App Store to support 64-bit, and existing applications must be updated to support by June 2018. It can be foreseen that from July 2018, Apple's iOS/Mac system will say goodbye to 32-bit applications.

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Apple will begin to remove support for 32-bit iOS apps on a large scale next year. From now on, only 64-bit apps will be allowed in Apple's App Store. Although this may seem inconvenient for app developers, it is undoubtedly a good thing for Apple's software ecosystem for users who want to upgrade to new versions of iOS.

What is the intention? Apple's iPhone has been on the market for 10 years, and many apps, from low-quality apps to excellent software products, can be found in Apple's App Store. This trick can clean up a lot of junk apps in the App Store. More importantly, support for 64-bit brings performance advantages. In the process of moving from the 32-bit ARMv7 architecture to the ARMv8 64-bit architecture, Apple will provide customers with better performance, which is a good thing. More importantly, the iPhone series, which Apple relies on most, will definitely continue to grow in memory during the update and iteration. By then, most iOS devices will have more than 4GB of memory. Therefore, only if all iOS apps only support 64-bit applications can developers freely use these iOS devices, or adapt their own applications to these iOS devices.

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So what does this change mean? This change means that Apple may stop providing nearly 200,000 apps, which account for about 8% of all Apple apps. However, the disappearance of these apps can at least let you know that the apps you use next time will no longer disappear inexplicably, and the 32-bit apps on your phone will no longer be able to be used.