They could give out an expiration date for repair services at the moment of purchase, instead of having what comes across as a yearly lottery for current owners.
The relevant quote "Products are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 5 and less than 7 years ago".
"More than 5 and less than 7" means some time in the sixth year. It couldn't be more clear than it is without them putting a retirement party on the calendar.
Maybe they should?
Edit to add: of course you don't want to know how long the device will be supported, to the day, because this policy gives a minimum of the sixth year after the date of purchase, and if they sell it for longer, they'll repair it for longer as well.
I’m impressed Apple supports iPhones for 7 years from when they went on sale, but 5 years from when they stopped selling them varies by product line.
On the Watch, it’s 3 years. It’s unfortunate because you could have bought a Series 3 this year and learned you will not get a software update for it ever again.
Where this 5-7 year legacy thing gets annoying is computer hardware - it used to be that you could bring in an Intel MacBook of any year and get it serviced, but at some point they cut costs and instituted this 5-7 year “legacy” policy, without actually specifically telling anyone any dates as to when their devices would or would not be serviced. The rule of thumb for computers is that if you can’t get OS updates, you’re probably not going to get spare parts, but that isn’t always the case either.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624
The relevant quote "Products are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 5 and less than 7 years ago".
"More than 5 and less than 7" means some time in the sixth year. It couldn't be more clear than it is without them putting a retirement party on the calendar.
Maybe they should?
Edit to add: of course you don't want to know how long the device will be supported, to the day, because this policy gives a minimum of the sixth year after the date of purchase, and if they sell it for longer, they'll repair it for longer as well.