When the new Apple Watch software, watchOS 11, arrives in the fall, it looks like the first model to feature an updated design, Apple Watch Series 4, won’t be admitted to the update party.
Apple Watch Series 4 could be left out when watchOS 11 comes along.
According to iphonesoft.fr, Apple Watch Series 4 won’t be compatible with watchOS 11. Of course, this doesn’t mean it’ll stop working. Far from it, it’ll continue exactly as it is now, but it won’t have access to any new updates. On the whole, these are limited to new features on the Watch, rather than the security fixes which are big parts of the iPhone’s iOS updates. It’s conceivable that if a security flaw was spotted, Apple could patch it with a watchOS 10 update.
Last year, when Apple introduced watchOS 10, every Apple Watch compatible with watchOS 9 remained supported by the new software. This is a regular Apple trick, carrying over compatibility from one generation to the next for one or even two successive years, but dropping one or more items after that.
So, perhaps it’s not a surprise that the Apple Watch Series 4, released in fall 2018, won’t be updated again.
Even so, it’s a bit of a moment. Series 4 was the first time the Apple Watch had been redesigned since its launch in spring 2015, going through four iterations (the original, then Series 1, Series 2 and Series 3) before Series 4 arrived.
And it made quite the splash, offering a larger display with narrower bezels, larger cases and for the first time ECG monitoring capabilities.
Which leaves us where, exactly? According to the source, all other Watches will be supported, which means Series 5, released in 2019, right through to last fall’s Series 9, plus this year’s Series 10.
Additionally, both the first- and second-generation models of Apple Watch SE are supported, plus Apple Watch Ultra and Apple Watch Ultra 2.
And it raises a question, as noted by 9to5Mac: are we sure Apple Watch Series 5 will be compatible? After all, the processor in Series 5 is very close to the one in Series 4, so surely if Series 5 is supported, Series 4 won’t be dropped. As 9to5Mac puts it, “Common sense says no, but Apple sense says absolutely! For one, Apple doesn’t see the S4 and S5 chips as the same, despite sharing the same CPU and GPU.”
More details as they emerge.
