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>Ironically, this 30% and the pivot to "Service" is why iOS devices get updates after 3 years while Android phones just become paperweights. Apple's support wi
by GeekyBear 5y ago
>Ironically, this 30% and the pivot to "Service" is why iOS devices get updates after 3 years while Android phones just become paperweights.
Apple's support window advantage long predates their services initiative.
Every flagship iPhone since the iPhone 4s in 2011 has gotten at least five years of OS and security updates.
If you count years where you only get a security update, but not an OS update the way the Android ecosystem does, they have devices that have gotten eight years of support.
- cmelbye 5y agoApp Store has been a >$1B business for at least a decade.
- GeekyBear 5y agoIf it's just a question of revenue, Google can certainly afford to update it's Pixel devices for more than three years. Heck, they can afford to offer customer service and technical support hotlines the way Apple does as well. However, the claim made was that Apple only started offering a longer update period after they started calling out service growth. This simply isn't true.
- 908B64B197 5y agoThey can except... They don't control the SoC! Qualcomm decides if a SoC gets to boot a newer Android or not. And it’s in Qualcomm’s interest to sell more chips, since they get no revenues post sales; only maintenance costs.
- GeekyBear 5y agoThat claim doesn't hold water. If people doing unpaid community support can produce custom ROMs for older devices that are no longer supported, Google can support older devices too. Not to mention the ability of any company to make demands of their suppliers. If Google can demand device makers not use a fork of Android, they can demand suppliers offer support for their products. Google simply doesn't care, because the customers they care about are the advertisers, not device purchasers.