Apple Still Uses the 13-Year-Old Windows XP

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past seven days or so, you might not know that Apple’s recently released iPhones are affected by a weird problem that causes the phones to bend after normal use, which makes it really clear that this is a bug and not a feature as the microwave charging support.

Jokes aside, the bendgate is causing really serious trouble to Apple, so the fruity-named company has decided to provide users with an in-depth look at its very own testing labs to show that it’s indeed putting all iPhones to serious tests before they are released to the market. While we won’t talk more about the bending problem because our resident Apple expert Filip Truta has already covered the bendgate, there’s one really unexpected thing which can be spotted in the video published by CNBC. Computers in Apple’s testing facility are all running Windows XP, the same XP that was launched in 2001 and which was discontinued by Microsoft in April this year.

Why not a modern operating system?

As you can see in the video, Apple is indeed using dedicated software for keeping an eye on iPhone testing results, so compatibility with modern operating systems could be one of the reasons the fruity-named company actually decided to stick to an ancient platform. Interestingly, that’s one of the problems that Microsoft actually tried to tackle with the release of Windows 8, so its modern desktop OS should also be able to run the majority of apps designed for previous versions of Windows. The tricky question is why this software solution isn't designed to run on Mac OS X. Nobody can give an answer right now, but it’s good to see Apple using Microsoft products. Microsoft employees are also using Apple devices, you know, so it’s more of an “I’ll use yours if you use mine” kind of business.

23 percent of users also doing the same

Windows XP continues to hold a pretty big market share despite all Microsoft’s efforts to push for a more secure operating system, such as Windows 8 and Windows 7. Statistics provided by third-party market researchers across the world show that XP is powering 23 percent of the desktops across the world, even though support was dropped in April 2014 and the operating system won’t get any new updates and security patches. Many, however, are in the middle of the migration to a newer platform, so it could still take a while until all PCs are upgraded, which could obviously lead to a massive drop in market share for Windows XP. In Apple’s case, it would be really interesting to find out whether these PCs are connected to the Internet or not. If they are, expect the real iPhone 6 bending test results to surface any time soon, courtesy of curious hackers.

Windows XP spotted in Apple's testing facility
Image credits to CNBC

Posted in: Mobile Phone, News