Vratislav Holub One of the biggest benefits of Apple phones is long-term software support. Since Apple makes its own hardware and software, it is much easier for it to optimize everything and offer the ideal solution for all phones. After all, this is something that we would simply not find in competing Android. In that case, the situation is much more complicated. The system itself comes from Google. Its new versions are subsequently adopted by the manufacturers of specific smartphones, who can modify them to the desired form and then distribute them for specific devices. Such a process is understandably much more demanding, which is why it is quite common for Android phones to have software support for about 2 years.
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On the contrary, iPhones clearly dominate in this. As we mentioned above, Apple in this case benefits from the fact that it itself is behind the hardware and software and thus has full control over everything. Another factor is also important. There are literally hundreds of Android phones, while there are only a few Apple phones, which makes optimization even easier. Generally speaking, while Android offers the aforementioned two-year support (with the exception of the Google Pixel), Apple's is five-year support. But as it turns out recently, this statement is no longer true.
The length of software support varies
Apple has been rumored for years to offer five years of software support to its users. This of course applies to Apple iPhones. In practice, it works quite simply. You can easily install the current operating system even on a 5-year-old phone, which, despite its age, will gain access to all new functions - if they are not dependent on the hardware. However, Apple is abandoning this five-year support strategy.
iPhone 14 Plus
In fact, it depends on the specific operating system. For example, such iOS 15 (2021) supported exactly the same devices as its predecessor iOS 14 (2020). Among them there was even an old iPhone 6S from 2015. In a way, the mentioned time was dragged out. However, the following and also the current iOS 16 system returned to the unwritten rule and supported iPhones from 2017, i.e. starting with the iPhone 8 (Plus) and iPhone X.
iOS 17 compatibility
We are still several months away from the public release of the expected iOS 17 operating system. It can be assumed that Apple will reveal this system as is traditional on the occasion of the developer conference WWDC, namely in June 2023, while we will then see the release of the first version to the public in September or October. Even so, speculation is beginning to what news will we get?, or what comes new.
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Flying around the world with Apple In addition, information revealing the compatibility of iPhones with iOS 17 has currently been leaked. According to this data, support will start with the iPhone XR, which will cut the iPhone 8 and iPhone X. This means only one thing - Apple is returning to the old ways and probably with a new system again bets on the five-year software support rule. In the end, let's therefore shed some light on a fundamental question. Does the claim that iPhones offer five years of software support still apply? But the answer is not so clear-cut. As we have shown on earlier systems, Apple can even exceed this imaginary deadline, or, on the contrary, return to it. In a very simplified and general way, however, it can be said that apple phones offer support for about 5 years.
I have iPhone SE 1st generation and currently IOS 15.7.2. Despite the fact that support for the old one was said to end with iOS 16, two security updates have already been released. So, although I don't have the latest IOS 16.2, I can upload and update all programs from Stor. With old Android, I was referring to the impossibility of updating already purchased programs, due to the overall age of Android.