What you need to know
- In a regulatory filing this week, Apple shared how long it will guarantee software updates for the iPhone 15 series.
- The company’s five-year commitment falls short of Samsung and Google’s update promise, marking an industry shift.
- While Apple could support the iPhone 15 for longer than the minimum, this shows just how far Android phones have come with software support.
Google made waves when it announced that the Pixel 8 series of flagship phones would support seven years of full OS upgrades last year. Samsung followed up Google’s commitment with a matching seven-year update promise of its own for the Galaxy S24 series earlier this year. More recently, Google extended that seven-year promise to cover the midrange Pixel 8a, proving that great software support can be had on devices at any price point.
Of course, these commitments were viewed as a massive win for Android — even if we aren’t quite sure what Android will look like in 2031. However, we still don’t have a finite gauge of how Google and Samsung’s software commitments stacked up against Apple’s. Until this year, Apple was the clear industry leader in software support with the iPhone and iOS. The uncertainty was cleared up this week, as Apple officially declared how long it would support the iPhone 15 series in a regulatory filing first spotted by Android Authority.
Apple never publicly stated the software support for iPhones before, making evaluating them tricky. The first two iPhones supported three years of iOS updates, while a few later iPhones supported as many as seven iOS upgrades. That’s a big range that leaves a lot up to Apple’s discretion. However, thanks to the United Kingdom’s new Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure policy, companies now have to disclose a guaranteed software support window for certain products.
In accordance with this new regulation, Apple said that the iPhone 15 series would get a total of five years of software support from the date the phones were first released. For those not keeping track, that’s five years from Sept. 22, 2023. Notably, that means Google and Samsung have guaranteed two more years of software support than Apple, and this is a first.
Software support matters, regardless of whether you will actually use your new Pixel 8 Pro or Galaxy S24 Ultra for seven years or not. Of course, with software support, you theoretically could do so. If, like most people, you decide to upgrade earlier, you can trade in or sell your old smartphone. Devices currently receiving software updates will fetch more on the resale market than unsupported ones, so phones with longer software support windows will retain their value better. Additionally, if phones can be used for longer, we can reduce E-waste and produce fewer new devices.
It’s something that should factor into your purchase decision. And for the first time, Android is the one receiving a tick in the win column.
Why Apple is making a commitment now
Like many of Apple’s recent moves, the company has only decided to outline a software support promise for the iPhone 15 series to comply with regulations. The five-year window is the minimum, and Apple could always extend support beyond this initial guarantee. There is evidence to suggest that the company will support more than that, based on Statista’s tracking of iPhones and iOS updates.
The last iPhone to support just five iOS versions was the iPhone 6, released in 2014. All the iPhones released since have received either six or seven iOS versions, though the jury is still out on some of the newer models. It’s possible that Apple is anticipating on-device AI processing becoming a huge part of iOS, which would restrict what kinds of hardware can run newer iOS versions. Or, in the more likely scenario, Apple is just declaring a minimum number, and it plans to offer more support than it has agreed to.
This only goes to show how far Android phones have come
Still, we shouldn’t give Apple a pass just because it could offer more support to the iPhone 15. As it stands now, the newest Android phones are guaranteed to get more full OS upgrades than the newest iPhones. That’s true regardless of how these promises and support windows end up playing out. Android manufacturers, specifically Samsung and Google, deserve credit for solving what was a major problem for the platform in previous years.
It was a common notion that iPhones inherently lasted longer than Android phones, and this situation has been completely flipped. At present, Pixel and Galaxy devices are guaranteed to receive more software support than iPhones, helping them last longer. Samsung has some serious repairability problems that could limit how long Galaxy phones can feasibly last, but Google is doing great on that front. Combined, it’s definitely possible that a Pixel phone can last longer than a new iPhone with great hardware and software support.
It’s still on Android phone brands to prove it
However, there is one thing to remember when we discuss the software support windows promised by companies — they actually have to deliver on these promises. The work isn’t done yet; in fact, the opposite is true. If the version of Android released seven years from now runs like garbage on Pixel 8 series phones, this support promise will be seen as nothing more than a marketing tactic. Other Android Central staffers and I have expressed skepticism over the Pixel 8 update guarantee, and we aren’t the only ones.
Samsung and Google still have to prove that they can support phones for seven years. But for now, it’s worth giving a tip of the cap to Android brands that have managed to usurp Apple in software support for the first time.