i guess the rare thing is the public commitment, but Apple has generally had a good track record for updates compared to its Android counterparts, who have previously failed to meet their goals or set laughable goals like 2 years.
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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It’s not really rare anymore now that there is legislation around it. Apple is putting this down in writing because that makes them compliant with PSTI.
Right? My iPhone XS was on the newest iOS and running fine, at least until I bent it between my car door and car frame.
@return2ozma committing to a number of years of software updates is...odd, not necessarily in the sense that nobody else is doing it, but in the sense that there are so many variables that go into whether or not a device will be supported on an update it’s actually kind of hard to set that kind of deadline and truthfully stick to it
The same with the claims from Google and Samsung: I’ll believe it when I see it (after all, remember PixelPass?)
I have a feeling the 7 years of software updates for Samsung or Pixel, can't remember which, will eventually start losing some of the more advanced features in the later years due to hardware constraints.
5 years is pretty stingy, and more importantly quite deadly for the environment.
@FarraigePlaisteach @return2ozma 5 years is way longer than most people keep their phones, and it’s also “at least” Apple has been known to push updates to older devices way past that
An update to iOS 15 came out not too long ago iirc
Plus there are so many variables that go into whether a device will be able to actually run a particular version of software so giving a hard commitment at all is going to be conservative
When updates gradually make those devices rage-inducingly slow, it’s inevitable that people will dispose of them. It really is a stretch to even say that they are “supporting” them.
Please don’t absolve mega corporations of their responsibility here.
@FarraigePlaisteach 99 times out of 100 the reason phones are getting slow is not updates, its a failing battery
Hold corporations accountable, but also don’t just shit on things to shit on them, device support isn’t that simple
@FarraigePlaisteach nuance is not inversely proportional to market cap
@countablenewt @FarraigePlaisteach Yeah people really need to stop unfairly blaming Apple all the time. They do far better for device support than Android junk phones.
As opposed to the practices of which company?
Giving only a few years of support is not a great practice, but that’s the world we live in. If we had fully open source phones, then the community could provide the updates for much longer, but there’s still a pretty long way to go in that regard.
I’d be happy with 5 continuous days of a reliable weather app.
I’ve been using the same iPhone Xs Max since Nov 2018 and it’s still smooth as butter. Not seeing a reason to upgrade other than when software stops being supported/updated.
Didn’t realize companies might drop support for phones older than 5 years.
Been super common in Android land for a long time. It’s only been recently that manufacturers have been committing to 7 OS generations / years of Android support.