Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
About Deployment Targets
Eventually, you'll have to make a decision on which devices your app should run on, and
which iOS versions you are going to support.
In theory, Cocos2D apps can run on any device with support for OpenGL ES 2.0 running
at least iOS 5. That makes the iPhone 3GS and the first iPad the oldest iOS devices you
can run your app on. In theory.
However, there's a huge difference in terms of performance between the iPhone 3GS and
the latest iPhone, and the first iPad compared to the latest iPad. Mobile technology is ad-
vancing fast, definitely faster than desktop computer technology.
Furthermore, market penetration of each newer iOS device is significantly higher than its
predecessors. Therefore, supporting older devices like the iPhone 3GS, perhaps even the
non-widescreen phones iPhone 4 and 4S, may not always be the financially sound de-
cision that it seems to be. Historically, and in stark contrast to the Android market, you're
more likely to generate a larger number of sales by specifically supporting the latest iOS
version, the latest models, and their exclusive features rather than trying to reach as far
back as you can.
My personal recommendation is to follow Apple as it introduces new models and discon-
tinues old models. If you are unsure which of them to support, support those that are cap-
able of running the latest iOS version when starting a new project. For a list of iOS
devices and their newest supported operating system, refer to this list on Wikipedia:
ht-
For iOS 8, the oldest targetable devices are iPhone 4S and iPad 2. Discontinued iOS mod-
els very quickly fall by the wayside in terms of app sales. Almost the same goes for iOS
versions. You can certainly require the second-to-latest major iOS version as your minim-
um deployment target when starting a new app project. For example, at this point in time,
iOS 8 is the latest iOS version. By supporting devices running iOS 7.0 and up, your app
has a potential addressable market that amounts to 94% of App Store usage as of October
5, 2014.
Apple periodically updates a chart that tells you what iOS versions users are using when
they visit the App Store:
https://developer.apple.com/support/
devices still running iOS 6 and earlier. Most of those older devices that have been sold are
either broken, stolen, or forgotten—or for the most part, their users hardly get any new
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