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This shouldn’t be newsworthy, but it is because of how companies use software to try to force upgrades on people. Apple helped pioneer this strategy

pzo 5y ago
So true. I wish they would to the same for their developers and didn't force us to after just half a year to upgrade to latest MacOS version - otherwise you cannot install latest Xcode update. As we speak I cannot even watch their developer conference online live on my macbook because 2 months ago they made their latest Developer.app update on Macos only available for MacOS Big Sur. This has been very annoying for me and is getting worse each year.
whoknowswhat11 5y ago
Huh? Apple uses software to extend the life of their phones for durations FAR FAR longer than the rest of the industry. It's pretty nuts actually when you compare the Apple offering to others. They are going to have iphone 13 out in 2022 (at the latest) running iOS 15 - which will ALSO run on devices they shipped 7 years ago. I got burned ONCE buying a handset for my parents that was android. It shipped with an outdated OS which was never updated. Literally, came 1 version back (which made sense, new version was just out) and then NEVER got an OS update. I'd been so used to the iphone approach I couldn't believe that was even a thing - but it actually is! You can buy a device through your carrier running android that is simply not updated. Hard to even imagine what the resale value would be of that type of phone a few years in, how do developers target it etc?
- singingboyo 5y ago
  That's not strictly an android thing, though it's common across a fair few android phone manufacturers. Google's own phones get several years of guaranteed updates - at least 3, I think? My Pixel 3XL still gets updates, anyway. My previous Samsung phones, on the other hand, barely got anything. That doesn't beat Apple, but it's semi-comparable - Google arguably just doesn't have its phones out in the wild as long. It's arguably more a benefit of unifying hardware and software under one company than it is an Android vs. iOS issue. Regarding developer targeting, I've only dabbled in android dev, but I believe most new android features end up supported by what basically amount to shim libraries to provide the features on top of older APIs... questionable, but possibly effective? Then you just build multiple versions of the apk to target the various OS versions, or something like that.
  - whoknowswhat11 5y ago
    But then why did OP say apple pioneered making phones obsolete with software. They literally seem to do the best here. Physical computers, android phones, etc etc - all seem to be zombified pretty quickly. Apple keeps on going. The number of things I've had that ended up not supported (I got gimmicked by Microsofts "plays for sure" stuff that ended up not playing for sure etc) is crazy. That has not happened with my iphone. I was a iPhone 1 full cash buyer. The music I bought there still plays today among other things. Google has discontinued stuff on me. Android (or carrier or handset maker) screwed me. etc.
- LocalH 5y ago
  They push upgrades really hard without actually forcing them, and they disallow almost all downgrades (except when a new version comes out, there is usually a few day window to downgrade to the previous version). It's entirely possible for a non-techie person to wake up to their phone upgraded, possibly to slightly worse performance (depending on the specific upgrade), and thus the UI may change out from under them.

pzo 5y ago

So true. I wish they would to the same for their developers and didn't force us to after just half a year to upgrade to latest MacOS version - otherwise you cannot install latest Xcode update. As we speak I cannot even watch their developer conference online live on my macbook because 2 months ago they made their latest Developer.app update on Macos only available for MacOS Big Sur. This has been very annoying for me and is getting worse each year.

whoknowswhat11 5y ago

Huh? Apple uses software to extend the life of their phones for durations FAR FAR longer than the rest of the industry. It's pretty nuts actually when you compare the Apple offering to others. They are going to have iphone 13 out in 2022 (at the latest) running iOS 15 - which will ALSO run on devices they shipped 7 years ago. I got burned ONCE buying a handset for my parents that was android. It shipped with an outdated OS which was never updated. Literally, came 1 version back (which made sense, new version was just out) and then NEVER got an OS update. I'd been so used to the iphone approach I couldn't believe that was even a thing - but it actually is! You can buy a device through your carrier running android that is simply not updated. Hard to even imagine what the resale value would be of that type of phone a few years in, how do developers target it etc?

singingboyo 5y ago
That's not strictly an android thing, though it's common across a fair few android phone manufacturers. Google's own phones get several years of guaranteed updates - at least 3, I think? My Pixel 3XL still gets updates, anyway. My previous Samsung phones, on the other hand, barely got anything. That doesn't beat Apple, but it's semi-comparable - Google arguably just doesn't have its phones out in the wild as long. It's arguably more a benefit of unifying hardware and software under one company than it is an Android vs. iOS issue. Regarding developer targeting, I've only dabbled in android dev, but I believe most new android features end up supported by what basically amount to shim libraries to provide the features on top of older APIs... questionable, but possibly effective? Then you just build multiple versions of the apk to target the various OS versions, or something like that.
- whoknowswhat11 5y ago
  But then why did OP say apple pioneered making phones obsolete with software. They literally seem to do the best here. Physical computers, android phones, etc etc - all seem to be zombified pretty quickly. Apple keeps on going. The number of things I've had that ended up not supported (I got gimmicked by Microsofts "plays for sure" stuff that ended up not playing for sure etc) is crazy. That has not happened with my iphone. I was a iPhone 1 full cash buyer. The music I bought there still plays today among other things. Google has discontinued stuff on me. Android (or carrier or handset maker) screwed me. etc.
LocalH 5y ago
They push upgrades really hard without actually forcing them, and they disallow almost all downgrades (except when a new version comes out, there is usually a few day window to downgrade to the previous version). It's entirely possible for a non-techie person to wake up to their phone upgraded, possibly to slightly worse performance (depending on the specific upgrade), and thus the UI may change out from under them.