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by toast0 2755 days ago
If you spend $200 on a phone instead of $1000, you get five years of OS upgrades by getting a new phone every year. If you luck out and one of your phones does have upgrades, you can skip a year.

Because the Android ecosystem doesn't have a strong upgrade ability, app developers generally target a wide variety of OS versions, so when you do get cut off from app updates, it's really ancient versions, like gingerbread.
2 comments
scarface74 2755 days ago
You don’t have to spend $1000 on an iPhone. You can get an iPhone 7 right now for $449 and if history is any guide, it will still be getting OS updates for at least 3 more years probably more.

Seeing that my iPhone 6s bought in 2015 for $750 is still faster than most modern Android phones, I don’t think OS upgrades are going to be a problem.

App developers being forced to support older OS’s is not a good thing for the platform. iOS Developers can target the latest OS and all of its features and still support 5 year old phones.

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ryandrake 2755 days ago
I love how this thread is acting like 5 years of software compatibility is a lot. It shows how low our expectations are in the world of handheld computing. I have computers from as far back as 2000 that I can still run Linux on and use productively. I wouldn’t even consider buying a technology product if I thought I’d be replacing it in a year. 5 years should be a minimum.
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scarface74 2755 days ago
Yes I can run a Plex Server on a circa 2009 Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz laptop running Windows 10. Back in 2009, I wouldn’t have wanted to run anything on a computer from 2000. In 2000, I definitely wouldn’t have still been using my 68030-16Mhz Mac LCII from 1991.

My mom is running the latest version of Chrome on a Mac Mini from 2006 that I put Windows 7 on. How much luck would you have had running the latest web browser on a computer from 1994 in 2006? In 1994, I had a PowerMac 6100/60 (PPC 601-60Mhz) with 24Mb of RAM and a 250Mb hard drive with a 486 DX/2 daughtercard with 32Mb of RAM.

Today, I can use a 5 year iPhone 5s. Back in 2013, I would have been masochistic to run an iPhone 3G.

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basch 2754 days ago
5 years followed by an unlocked bootloader.
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scarface74 2754 days ago
Like most people are going to “unlock the bootloader” and find a build that works with their phone.

On the other hand, the day the new OS version or security patch is released for iOS, anyone in the world can go to the settings app and update their phone.

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