Apple Watch Collection 4 is allegedly lacking from the watchOS 11 machine compatibility checklist and gained’t be formally supported when the replace launches this fall.
Whereas watchOS 10 helps the identical Apple Watch fashions because the earlier watchOS 9 software program, that may change with the arrival of watchOS 11 within the fall.
French-language iPhoneSoft claims watchOS 11 would require Apple Watch Collection 5 or later. In different phrases, watchOS 11 would possibly require Apple Watch fashions manufactured in 2019 or later. That might mark the tip of the highway for Apple Watch Collection 4, launched in 2018 as the corporate’s first redesigned Apple Watch.
Rumor: watchOS 11 gained’t help Apple Watch Collection 4
PhoneSoft claims the machine compatibility checklist for watchOS 11 seems to be as follows:
- Apple Watch Collection 5 (2019)
- Apple Watch Collection 6 (2020)
- Apple Watch Collection 7 (2021)
- Apple Watch Collection 8 (2022)
- Apple Watch Collection 9 (2023)
- Apple Watch SE (first technology, 2020)
- Apple Watch SE (second technology, 2022)
- Apple Watch Extremely (first technology, 2022)
- Apple Watch Extremely 2 (2023)
Even when watchOS 11 gained’t help Apple Watch Collection 4, the machine will proceed receiving bug-fix updates. Nonetheless, Collection 4 watches gained’t get any of the brand new options or enhancements anticipated within the upcoming watchOS 11 replace.
Apple will preview watchOS 11 alongside iOS 18 and different software program on the upcoming five-day WWDC event, operating from June 9 via June 14. You possibly can download our WWDC24-themed wallpapers for iPhone and have a good time the occasion in type.
AI options in watchOS 11 could require Neural Engine
Apple optimizes its varied working system software program for particular chipsets, not concrete units. The watchOS 9 replace, launched in 2022, killed help for Apple Watch Collection 3. The machine was powered by Apple’s dual-core S3 chipset, which introduced 64-bit computing to the corporate’s wearable machine for the primary time.
The issue with the Apple Watch Collection 3 wasn’t that Apple stored offering software program updates for it years after launch. That’s nice! It was simply that Apple stored promoting it … even when watchOS 9 was launched in beta and confirmed to not help it.
And:
The excellent news is Apple can’t repeat that misstep right here as a result of the Collection 4 {hardware} has lengthy been discontinued. Apple now positions the Apple Watch SE because the entry degree mannequin, and the corporate is already on the second technology of that mannequin.
watchOS 11 almost definitely gained’t help Apple Watch Collection 3 as a result of its S3 processor doesn’t run AI duties effectively. However the S4 chip in Apple Watch Collection 4 is the primary Apple Watch processor with a Neural Engine, a coprocessor that runs AI duties a lot quicker than the CPU and GPU may with out taxing the battery.
Given Apple’s robust AI focus with this 12 months’s releases, it will make good sense to cease supporting any watches with no Neural Engine. This has already occurred on iPhone as iOS 18 should support all the same iPhones as iOS 17.