serious question here - how does Apple deal with this problem ?
Apple also survives on big bang releases - the next iphone, macbook pro, etc etc. But also is famous for not abandoning old phones. iphone 6 was still receiving updates in Dec 2021.
so how does Apple manage this dichotomy ? or is the company level yearly release completely wipe out the need for individual "hard problem" solving ?
Apple released an IOS update for the iPhone 6s last month. That's 7 years of software updates. A 2015 MacBook can still run the newest OS. A Mac Pro from 2013 can still run the newest OS. You can still buy a replacement battery from Apple for a 7 year old device.
Where is the planned obsolescence? Apple is supporting their devices longer than any other consumer tech company. How are they actively trying to "screw customers over"?
The basic issue is that, say, 8 year old hardware is still pretty functional in a lot of cases but that’s probably near the support limit of even fairly long-term OS and app support.
I’m mostly ok on a couple Macs because I really only use them as browsers anyway. But with iPads and iPhones they really become useless without updates after a while.
I’ve been using an iPhone X as a spare phone for travel but it finally stopped charging and I see it’s out of support so not worth fixing.
Seems arguable -- but if that's the case, they are one of the lesser offenders in the market right now.
The lifespan of much of Apple's hardware is considerably longer than most competitors' products. This is especially true with phones. I'm using an iPhone 7 right now, which was first released in Sept 2016. So, five full years and counting, and it's still running the latest iOS version. Not just "still gets security updates" on an old OS, but actually runs the latest release.
For hardware in 2022, that's not bad.
Personally, I think it's kind of a low bar, and we really ought to be able to do better. (I think a 5-year lifespan for a phone or a laptop, and 10 for a desktop, should be a starting point.)
Apple can't win here. They don't release the update, and people bash them for not supporting expensive devices. They release the update, and people bash them for some kind of forced-planned-obsolescence.
Apple stuff lasts, this is not an Apple issue, any of those phones would have been good for several years. I'm only my 3rd iPhone in 9 years (soon to replace it though). Also 3rd iPad in 9 years. My Macbook Air is from 2012. Apple do software updates going quite far back. A lot of Apple's hardware looks exactly the same from generation to generation, so even if you updated, how would anyone know? If customers want to chop and change that's on them, Apple is not forcing it really.
Maintaining software is not as fun as greenfield development, and Apple's strategy of assuming that their users should just throw away three year old devices seems not to work out any longer.
I suspect it’s the need to deliver a new OS every year.
Apple used to maintain a 2 year (or longer) cadence earlier.
I suspect the first few months after each release used to be focused on hardening it. With the yearly release cycle they probably have to shift over to working on the next release almost immediately.
Apple keeps the OS current on it's devices for twice as many years as most Android device makers. Are we pretending that the sort of person who keeps the same device for up around ten years is the sort of person who constantly loads new apps?
The Apple strategy would be that it works fine and then 6 months in they release an update that specifically targets these devices and they are instantly worthless.
As a hardware company, if a huge percentage of your user base is still using a product you made five years ago, there are two schools of thought:
1. "Great! Our products are so well-made, stable and backwards-compatible that users do not have to upgrade."
2. "This is terrible. We have failed so thoroughly to innovate that people are content with using five-year-old technology."
It's not like Apple is unaware of virtues of #1, but as a company they are clearly in bucket #2. In five years, if 600MM users are still using the iPhone 6, I'm certain they would also consider that "very sad". I don't think Schiller and the exec team have blinders, they are just holding the rest of the PC industry to the same standard to which they hold themselves.
And if I wasn't clear, I blame software development in general, not Apple. Some other brands are worst in terms of device longevity (looking at you Samsung).
Apple is struggling with innovation as well as admitting that some product lines (like SE) has a 1.0 stage when you do not need to add or remove (hello jack port) features anymore and you can just do minor updates (like CPU) every so often.
Yeah, the update problem was a big one for some time. They seem to have fixed that now to a big degree though. Warranty I'm unsure, but convincing me that Apple does that better is not hard. Haven't thought about that at all, since I never had an issue before using a phone for 2+ years (whcih meant replacing it with a newer one was the better option anyways)
Apple also survives on big bang releases - the next iphone, macbook pro, etc etc. But also is famous for not abandoning old phones. iphone 6 was still receiving updates in Dec 2021.
so how does Apple manage this dichotomy ? or is the company level yearly release completely wipe out the need for individual "hard problem" solving ?
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