iPhone 5s was released in 2013, and it captured a good market. But now, after five years of its release, there aren’t many users of the 5s. Still, there is good news for the users of this version of the iPhone – iOS 12 will continue to support the 5s, according to development testing reports by WebKit.
This is interesting because every major iOS update has experienced less support for at least one model for the past several years. According to the Webkit project page, the API tests for the software include a report from a developer in January that shows an implementation of the testing suite that could be run using Python. The report confirmed, “iPhone 5s running iOS 12.”
This also means that iOS 12 is used to test important software like Safari, and iPhone 5s users could still get to use the next iteration of iOS. Moreover, Apple’s support pages confirmed that iOS 11 is compatible with the iPhone 5s, iPhone SE, and other newer models. The support for the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5 was not included in last year’s major release.
Possibly, the iPhone 5s supports iOS 12 report has come for testing purposes only and may not be released to the public. Hence there is no guarantee that this phone will run on iOS 12 later this year.
Since open source software is accessible to all, WebKit is a difficult area for Apple to keep its future software plans outside public reach. Due to open source software being visible to the public, WebKit is one of the more difficult areas for Apple to keep its future software plans out of view. Hence to curb any future software leaks, the Apple developers working on the Safari browser rendering engine and submitting code are advised to use macros. The macros are used to prevent the public project from being a source of software leaks, yet the “TBA macros” are not always used.
Apple will likely launch the iOS 12 along with its other noteworthy versions of other operating systems and major updates to its other software in the WWDC 2018 keynote address on June 4.
