Google is not promising this out of the goodness of their heart. They're just getting ahead of what the EU is planning to mandate [0], and doing that to get some good marketing while they're at it.
So, while Google's track record leaves a lot to be desired, in this, I think they'll keep their promise, either because they actually care, or because the EU will force them to. Either way, we, the end users, will benefit from it.
And this will apply to all electronic device makers. That's probably why Samsung also increased their updates policy to five years as well.
>Google is not promising this out of the goodness of their heart. They're just getting ahead of what the EU is planning to mandate
If that was the case then why did Google exceed the requirement by 2 years? Additionally, Google is providing 7 years of OS upgrades and 7 years of security updates. Google could have easily just do what they did with the Pixel 7 and offer 3 years of OS upgrades and 5 years of security updates, thus, meeting these EU requirement of 5 years of updates. So to claim that Google offering an industry leading 7 years of OS upgrades and 7 years of security updates is not out of the "goodness of their heart" is being disingenuous IMO.
Do you really think the cost of the class action lawsuit and settlement and the bad publicity for not adhering to their 7 years of support would not exponentially exceed the cost of a team of engineers tasked with supporting updates for their Pixel phones?
As for "promises" - why hasn't any other OEM matched or exceeded Google? Apple should have been the first one to step up the very next day.
Google is not promising this out of the goodness of their heart. They're just getting ahead of what the EU is planning to mandate [0], and doing that to get some good marketing while they're at it.
So, while Google's track record leaves a lot to be desired, in this, I think they'll keep their promise, either because they actually care, or because the EU will force them to. Either way, we, the end users, will benefit from it.
And this will apply to all electronic device makers. That's probably why Samsung also increased their updates policy to five years as well.
[0]: https://www.insideprivacy.com/cybersecurity-2/eu-publishes-d...
> "The requirements apply for the lifetime of a product or five years from its placement on the market, whichever is shorter."