There were plenty of rumours ahead of launch that Apple was going to cut support for the iPhone 11 with its iOS 27 release later this year – but Tim Cook set the record straight at WWDC 2026.
The outgoing Apple CEO confirmed that iOS 27 will be available to every iPhone running iOS 26 right now, which means every iPhone from the iPhone 11 onwards. That’s a pretty solid feat considering the iPhone 11 was released way back in 2019 – practically ancient history in terms of tech – but, rather oddly, the same can’t be said for iPadOS 27, and especially watchOS 27.
And honestly, I’m not quite sure why.
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Three-year-old Apple Watches aren’t getting watchOS 27
In my mind, the Apple Watch Ultra – even the first-gen model – is still relatively new tech, even though it launched back in 2022. Still, by Apple’s standards, that is still pretty new, with Apple supporting iPhone hardware from 2019 with its latest phone update.
However, Apple has decided that the Apple Watch Ultra’s time has come – and, along with the Apple Watch Series 9 that launched just three years ago, won’t be getting access to watchOS 27 when it launches later this year.
Instead, the AI-powered software update is coming to the second-gen Apple Watch Ultra and later, along with Apple Watch Series 10 and later and the third-gen Apple Watch SE.
That’s a grand total of five Apple Watch models eligible for the update, leaving the Apple Watch 6, 7, 8 and 9, Apple Watch Ultra and both the Apple Watch SE 1 and 2 – a total of seven models – with watchOS 26 ad infinitum.
Just to add insult to injury, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 shares the same S9 chipset as the Series 9. One is getting the upgrade, but the other isn’t…
A bunch of iPads aren’t getting iPadOS 27 either
Though not quite as egregious as the vanishingly small list of Apple Watch models getting the watchOS 27 update, iPadOS 27 drops support for a wide range of iPads – including some models of Apple’s top-end iPad Pro range.
iPadOS 27 essentially supports A14, M1, or later, meaning the third-gen iPad Air has been cut, along with the third-generation iPad Pro 12.9 and the original iPad Pro 11. The fifth-gen iPad mini also got its marching orders, as has the eighth-gen iPad.
The iPad Pro 12.9 and 11 were both released back in 2018, joined by the third-gen iPad Air and fifth-gen iPad mini in 2019, and the eighth-gen iPad in 2020, making it a little easier to swallow that they’re not getting the latest software update – but considering all got iPadOS 26, it feels like they could’ve run iPadOS 27, maybe without some of those big, shiny AI features.
Also, if the Apple A13 Bionic in the iPhone 11 can run iOS 27, why can’t the A14 in iPads run iPadOS 27?
An odd decision
Considering Apple is rolling out the iOS 27 update to every single model of iPhone back to the iPhone 11 – which launched in 2019, seven years ago – the decision to limit watchOS (and, to some extent, iPadOS) to much newer hardware seems an odd choice.
It could be argued that the new Siri capabilities just can’t run on the older hardware, and that’s fine; just do what Apple did with iPhones and set a hard line for any Apple Intelligence features.
The iPhone 11 might be getting iOS 27, but Apple Intelligence-related features are limited to the iPhone 15 Pro and later, and some specific Siri AI features are limited to the iPhone 17 lineup. It feels like that’d be a smart way to ensure that relatively new Apple hardware continues to get updates for a few more years.
Instead, it seems like a lot of Apple Watch and iPad owners will be left in the dark once the big software updates drop later this year, and the only fix? Buy some new Apple hardware, of course.
