[sebtron]

Software support is another big one. My 6.5 year old smartphone is still strong on battery, but it stopped receiving updates long ago. At some point, some stuff I needed would not work anymore. Fortunately I found a version of LineageOS for it, but it was a lucky accident - the vast majority of phones become waste at that point.

I really hope vendors get forced to open up their hardware for the user to install their own OS once they stop supporting a device with updates.

[sschueller]

Why is this still so difficult? Android and Apple have moved a lot of apps out of the system image into the app store so they could be updated more easily.

I know the hardware on Android is fragmented but by now we should be able to handle this? PC are way more fragmented. Maybe drivers need to be open sourced?

Is it just too much competitive interest?

What manufacturer would want a phone that last more than 3 years when there is no downside and a possibility of someone buying another phone.

The only scenario where I see this change is by a law or phones become something you no longer own but rent. Then it would be in the interest of the manufacturer to keep the costs as low as possible and try to make you keep the same phone as long as possible.