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Comment by charcircuit

4 years ago

How is provividing updates reducing the lifespan ofa device? Usually not having long term support of a device including security patches is seen as reducing the lifespan.

4 comments

charcircuit

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shkkmo  4 years ago

> How is provividing updates reducing the lifespan ofa device?

Nobody claims it does.

If a manufacturer goes out of business ot decides to stop providing updates, you can be stuck with a piece of junk if you don't control your device. If a device is designed to only allow automatic updates direct from the manufacturer and you have no control over the version of software your device runs, your perfectly functional hardware can become a useless piece of junk. Since updates often further lock devices down to make it harder run your own software, being unable to revert older versions of the software on your device can directly prevent you from being able to modify your device to make it functional.

This is all not just idle speculation, it happens all the time.

  • judge2020  4 years ago

    They’re referring to

    > By artificially reducing the lifespan of these devices,

    An iPhone 6S will run iOS 15, and if you throw a new battery in it it’ll run like new for almost all tasks, with the only caveat possibly being reduced NAND capacity/slower FS performance.

    • shkkmo  4 years ago

      Yes, and nowhere in the paragraph or comment you pulled that quote from does it claim that providing updates reduces the lifespan of the device.

      I clearly explained how aspects of how updates are handled can reduce device lifespan.

      Apple has issues, but the length of time they support their devices is pretty good. It would be even better if they hadn't spent lots of time working to prevent devices older than the 6s from running any software not approved by apple.

      As a counter example look at how Sonos handled the S1 to S2 transition. Deliberately bricking functional devices to reduce the second hand market. Not only discontuing updates to S1 speakers that had been bought new only a few years before, but also blocking updates to any S2 devices on the same network as a S1 device. Both of these policies were adjusted afterwards only after they garnered bad publicity and sparked a public outcry.