Minimum iOS Version 5.0 & The App Store

Question

We're talking about making the minimum iOS version of our consumer facing app 5.0+. We have a few questions, and I was unable to find a great resource for the answers:

1. For existing users with 4.xx, when the next update is released, will they just not see the update in the App Store? IE, until they update their iOS version to our new minimum version, they will never see the most recent update and will be "stuck" on the previous version?
2. For new customers with 4.xx, when they search for our app on the App Store, will it show up in search results? If so, what will be displayed when they click Install ?

Thank you for your help. I found lots of information on specifically 3.xx to 4.xx, but wanted to get a more detailed explanation for the scenarios explained above. If there is Apple developer documentation for this, please point me in the right direction.:)

Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes.

If you specify the deployment target for your app as iOS 5.x, your customers running iOS 4.x won't see an update on the app store and will be stuck at the previous versions of your app.

New customers running iOS 4.x will be able to see the app but won't be able to install it. They'll get a system error message that iOS 5 is required to install this app.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

The App store on the device will filter out apps and updates that are inappropriate for the current iOS device OS version. The user won't see them (or if they see them on some devices, won't be able to download or install them).

However, the iTunes App Store on the customer's Mac or PC will not filter by OS version. iTunes will download apps that the user can't install on their devices running older iOS versions, and, far worse, will put any working app versions in the trash after downloading their useless updates.