3 ms·

Recycling and buying renewed or refurbished phones is good, but the fact that many phones are unsupported after three or sometimes even two years is a problem.

Recycling and buying renewed or refurbished phones is good, but the fact that many phones are unsupported after three or sometimes even two years is a problem. Qualcomm has been a big culprit in this for many years now. They refuse to support their chipsets for too long, because they can reduce expenses not having to maintain them, and more importantly they make more money selling more chipsets to manufacturers.

a-dub 4y ago
this is correct. there ought to be a law where if hardware is bound to software, and the software goes out of support in a way that renders the hardware useless, then it must be open sourced. notably post qualcomm pixel phones from google have five years of guaranteed updates. (pixel 6 and above) apple seems to also do a good job of keeping up software updates for many years. (8+ for some iphones iirc)
- kevincox 4y ago
  I would even be happy to see required labeling for how long a product will be supported for. Just like we have energy usage guides, mass or volume listed and nutrition labels it should be mandated to label how long a product is supported for. If Cloud services are shut down or security vulnerabilities are unpatched in that timeframe you have to give full refunds/recalls and/or get slapped with significant fines. It is getting better with companies doing this voluntarily (at least the companies that do an ok job with support) but standardized labeling and required promenance would be invaluable.
- david_allison 4y ago
  Samsung recently moved to 4 years of updates (with 5 on some flagships): https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-galaxy-os-upgrade-one-ui-android-unpacked-2022/ https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-galaxy-os-upgrade-one-ui...
- gst 4y ago
  > notably post qualcomm pixel phones from google have five years of guaranteed updates. (pixel 6 and above) 5 years of security updates. Still only 3 years of guaranteed Android version upgrades: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705 https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705
  - a-dub 4y ago
    that's fine. halted security updates render the device unusable. halted feature updates mean you got what you paid for.
faeriechangling 4y ago
Yeah Qualcomm has literally become a global environmental and sustainability scourge and it has honestly been a factor in switching away from their products as much as is possible given their modem monopoly. The competition isn’t much better but it IS better. The thing is I can make that choice but for many people the cellphones they can afford are mediatek and Qualcomm. This lack of support doesn’t truly save money it just cost shifts from a wealthy corporation to the global poor.
gst 4y ago
> Qualcomm has been a big culprit in this for many years now. They refuse to support their chipsets for too long, because they can reduce expenses not having to maintain them, and more importantly they make more money selling more chipsets to manufacturers. In the past I've seen that argument a lot when it comes to Google's Pixel phones. But nowadays Google uses their own chips, yet a new Pixel 7 that you buy today will still only get guaranteed major Android version upgrades until 2025.

a-dub 4y ago

this is correct. there ought to be a law where if hardware is bound to software, and the software goes out of support in a way that renders the hardware useless, then it must be open sourced. notably post qualcomm pixel phones from google have five years of guaranteed updates. (pixel 6 and above) apple seems to also do a good job of keeping up software updates for many years. (8+ for some iphones iirc)

kevincox 4y ago
I would even be happy to see required labeling for how long a product will be supported for. Just like we have energy usage guides, mass or volume listed and nutrition labels it should be mandated to label how long a product is supported for. If Cloud services are shut down or security vulnerabilities are unpatched in that timeframe you have to give full refunds/recalls and/or get slapped with significant fines. It is getting better with companies doing this voluntarily (at least the companies that do an ok job with support) but standardized labeling and required promenance would be invaluable.
david_allison 4y ago
Samsung recently moved to 4 years of updates (with 5 on some flagships): https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-galaxy-os-upgrade-one-ui-android-unpacked-2022/ https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-galaxy-os-upgrade-one-ui...
gst 4y ago
> notably post qualcomm pixel phones from google have five years of guaranteed updates. (pixel 6 and above) 5 years of security updates. Still only 3 years of guaranteed Android version upgrades: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705 https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705
- a-dub 4y ago
  that's fine. halted security updates render the device unusable. halted feature updates mean you got what you paid for.

faeriechangling 4y ago

Yeah Qualcomm has literally become a global environmental and sustainability scourge and it has honestly been a factor in switching away from their products as much as is possible given their modem monopoly. The competition isn’t much better but it IS better. The thing is I can make that choice but for many people the cellphones they can afford are mediatek and Qualcomm. This lack of support doesn’t truly save money it just cost shifts from a wealthy corporation to the global poor.

gst 4y ago

> Qualcomm has been a big culprit in this for many years now. They refuse to support their chipsets for too long, because they can reduce expenses not having to maintain them, and more importantly they make more money selling more chipsets to manufacturers. In the past I've seen that argument a lot when it comes to Google's Pixel phones. But nowadays Google uses their own chips, yet a new Pixel 7 that you buy today will still only get guaranteed major Android version upgrades until 2025.