[fouric]

Apple does have a very good reputation for building reliable products (with a few notable ~~keyboards~~ exceptions) and providing security updates - but I think that there's an argument to be made that that should be an expectation of phones in general, and not limited to Apple.

If one wants a slightly lighter-touch regulation strategy, instead of directly mandating that "a phone must have security updates for n years", legislation could require that (a) CO2 emission cost used to manufacture (b) MTBF (c) warranty period and (d) guaranteed security+OS update lifetime be included on the packaging (like nutrition labels). Then, when shopping, consumers can see that the $700 phone has a 5 year MTBF (and is repairable) while the $400 phone has a 2 year MTBF - similar to the unit prices that are already included on grocery store price tags.