Why the average lifespan of a smartphone is only three years

https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-10-07/will-your-cellphone-work-for-a-decade-why-the-average-lifespan-of-a-smartphone-is-only-three-years.html

by PaulHoule • 3 years ago

56 66 3 years ago

english.elpais.com

LispSporks22• 3 years ago

I think Apple does a good job here. My iPhone 6S still getting updates last month. I think it’s around 8 years old now.

Spivak2• 3 years ago

One of my friends just got the battery replaced on her 1st gen iPhone SE and she's not giving it up until it dies of natural causes.

barbs2• 3 years ago

Typing this on my iPhone SE, I replaced the battery myself a couple of years ago and am planning to do it again soon. It's only got iOS 15 but it's still getting security updates and works well.

tim333• 3 years ago

I'm also on a 1st gen SE and it's a great phone but the end is probably near. OS upgrades stopped last year, I've had one dumb app I can't use because it needs iOS 16+. Also I fancy having eSIM which the phone doesn't have. I think maybe the 13 mini next?

chinabot• 3 years ago

the 6 has stopped getting updates, I had to update it last year

benatkin• 3 years ago

Yeah the 6 is the previous generation, this old versioning style was confusing

I don’t think the comment you’re replying to suggests never stopping updates. I don’t suggest that either. Otherwise people will think software is properly patched when it isn’t and application developers will not be able to modernize their stacks. I think currently 5 years is acceptable but we should strive for more. Some of these Android ones are BS.

rinrab• 3 years ago

I think it will get updates with bug fixes and security updates.

scarface_744• 3 years ago

iOS 12.5.7 for the iPhone 6 came out this year as a security update.

justsomehnguy2• 3 years ago

There is only so many iPhone models there. There are hundreds of thousands of Androids there, on a different platforms, with different chipsets, CPUs and radio. Sure, Google can travel back in time and re-do it's the proper way.

unilynx• 3 years ago

Or fix it over the three next years, if that is the average lifespan.

not_your_vase• 3 years ago

There was a short period of time when I thought that they finally solved this problem, when they deferred the browser updates to Google Play instead of being part of the whole OS update. I really thought that they would move everything there slowly over a year or two, and it would stop being a shitshow... but I realized fairly quick how wrong I was.

scarface_744• 3 years ago

And yet Wintel figured this out almost 30 years ago.

k310• 3 years ago

My iPhone8 just got an ios 16.7.1 update but ios 17 is not supported.

Hoping it lasts even longer.

mortify• 3 years ago

The lack of updates beyond 2-3 years on Android is pitiful. If the manufacturer will not certify new updates after a period of time, they should support moving to another version of the OS that supports updates.

Repair costs are ludicrous. My 4 year old phone has a crack on the corner of the front glass. Repair shops are quoting me $250 to repair it. I can find old new stock of the same phone for less.

Spivak2• 3 years ago

Repair costs are ludicrous..

Welcome to "hiring a human to do a few hours technical labor involving low-volume parts." I don't think it's crazy, I think we just can't fathom how inexpensive per-unit manufacturing costs are and how efficient modern logistics is.

hakfoo• 3 years ago

I'd expect there's some lost scale opportunities.

Outside of the really unique designs (folding, etc.), most phone screens tend to fall into a few basic size classes, but we still end up with wildly varying designs within those classes. The connectors are different, it's 2mm larger or smaller, etc.

I suspect when a manufacturer orders 100,000 the engineering costs to make it a little custom are insignificant on a per-screen basis.

If we had more top-down economic planning, there would likely be a single Display Monopoly, and they would say "here's the one six-inch display model for 2023". Whether it went into a Samsung or a Umidigi, there would just be one replacement SKU, and it would be far more feasible for repair vendors to stock it.

I busted my Lumia 1020 back in the day, and ended up retiring it because local repair shops were all 'weeks, if we can get the parts". If you had an iPhone or certain Galaxy S models, you at least had some chance spares were available from parts phones.

This would mean that even if you had something other than an iPhone or a recent Galaxy S, you'd have a chance of an affordable replacement part.

jwrallie• 3 years ago

Lack of updates of the OS in one side of it, but everything else in the phone updating and becoming more and more resource hungry is another issue.

I am the kind of person that never drops a phone and can replace a dying battery by myself. As long as parts are available, the most decisive factor for me to change a phone is the available RAM for apps, seconded by the lack of security updates.

I wish proper software optimization and testing on older hardware was given more attention, It is sad to replace perfectly good hardware due to bloated software. That and society requiring me to use 5 different chat apps that could but refuse to talk to each other.

MichaelRo• 3 years ago

I never update. NEVER.

Hate updates with a passion. If they don't break something rightaway (most of the times they do), are guaranteed to turn a snappy phone into a sluggish, barely-usable sort of a brick.

Afterall you never install Windows 11 on your Windows 95 machine and if you did, it would be unusable. Yet the Win95 software is perfectly usable if you decide to stick to it.

If I want new software I'll buy a new device that can run it.

Old phones can last A LONG TIME. I only replaced my mother's Samsung Galaxy S4 last month and only because WhatsApp refused to work with it anymore (not that it couldn't but so are corporate decisions). In all it lasted 10 years, not bad for a phone with no updates.

Like "the market will always go up long term", software updates are the cancer we were brainwashed to accept as some unquestionable axiom.

milleramp• 3 years ago

For what it's worth Pixel 8 is 7 years, but your right about a far majority of devices. https://blog.google/products/pixel/software-support-pixel-8-...

scarface_744• 3 years ago

Yes and we know that Google always follows through with its products.

With Google’s “ooh shiny”, ship new features to get a promotion culture, no team is going to want to support a 7 year old product that isn’t generating new sales.

How will that ever show “impact”?

pharmakom3• 3 years ago

If Google reach 5 years of updates on the Pixel 8 I will consider a Pixel 13

oldbbsnickname2• 3 years ago

Android updates: yep. It's even worse when it's cell phone carrier-branded system updates such as a Verizon Samsung Tab.

Phone repair costs: also yep. My friend owns a cell phone repair chain. They cannot get front glass for iPhone 1[345] Pro (or Pro Max) because the screens just aren't available for any price. The consequence is the third-party cell phone repair business is presently dying.

bryanlarsen• 3 years ago

Google has moved a lot of capability from the core operating system to updatable libraries. For example, the system browser isn't linked to the OS. So if your Android version is a few versions behind you're generally not missing too many capabilities, nor do you run into too much app incompatibility. So if the vendor only updates the core OS for 3 years, it's still generally quite usable for a few years more. Sure, it'd be better if the core OS updated too, but IMO it's not a major annoyance.

entropyneur• 3 years ago

I've never replaced a smartphone out of search for novelty, lack of updates or repair difficulties. Rather each of them got progressively slower over time eventually reaching a point of being unusable. And I'm pretty sure I have high tolerance for slow UI - whenever I asked my wife to do something on my last one, she would think it's not working at all.

How much of that is intentional on the vendors' part is an open question, but I'm sure they aren't losing sleep over it.

verisimi• 3 years ago

Not a moment's sleep is lost, I'm sure.

tempodox• 3 years ago

It's even worse on iPads. They nag you incessantly to update to the latest OS, but woe betide you if you do. The new OS eats too much memory so there's nothing left for other software, and countless background processes are killing the last bit of performance. But they still rate this device as “compatible” with that OS. Apple sure knows how to squeeze the last pennies out of unaware users.

tincholio• 3 years ago

I was having a similar issue with a ca2015 Macbook Pro, new things wouldn't work without updating the OS to whatever the new flavor is. It now happily runs EndeavourOS...

steve19774• 3 years ago

First rule of being an Apple user: always let others update first and see what problems they run into ;)

plutoh283• 3 years ago

iPad Pro’s are ridiculously overpowered now and I’d recommend them for a long term solution. I’ve been using a 2018 iPad Pro with the A12X Bionic (from the iPhone XS and XR release) and it’s been running without a hitch on latest iPadOS @ 120hz. I imagine an M1 iPad Pro will still be more than enough to run whatever iPadOS releases 5+ years later.

It seems like hardware has greatly outpaced software requirements these days. I imagine phones with 2023 hardware will be more than viable in 2029, whereas a phone purchased in 2010 would definitely be a piece of junk compared to a phone in 2016.

Gigachad2• 3 years ago

This might have been a problem 10 years ago but the situation is pretty good now. I've got an ipad air 2 2014 on the latest OS available and it still works really well. My Apple Watch is 3 years old now and still feels as fast and good as day one.

vegetable• 3 years ago

Not even slowness for me... Each time I've had to change phones was because of a failing battery at around the 4 year mark.

steve19774• 3 years ago

At least on iPhones, you can get the battery replaced for around 80 bucks. Which can give your device another 2 years of lifetime or so.

steve19774• 3 years ago

When you operate in a saturated market, there is not much room for growth by reaching more customers. So in order to generate growth, you need to sell again to your existing customers and you need to do so often.

Capitalism 101 I guess.

Kaxo• 3 years ago

Non-replacable battery is the no1 cause.

Its amazing that the general public have accepted that as another other than a deliberate ploy to sell more new phones more regularly.

Regulators need to start enforcing repairability if they actually want to tackle e-waste.

sebtron2• 3 years ago

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• 3 years ago

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.

plutoh283• 3 years ago

Non-replaceable battery has got to be one of the most profitable examples of planned obsolescence. Your average consumer is going to notice that their phone is lagging more frequently and attribute that to their phone being old… when in reality it’s just that their battery has degraded [1]. So, what could’ve been a <$100 replacement becomes a $1000 upgrade.

[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210557?cid=iOS_SettingsUI_...

Gigachad2• 3 years ago

Even in the age of easily swappable batteries I don't think many people actually did swap them. I had a Samsung S5 and when the battery started to go, I walked up to the samsung store for a new battery, and they told me they didn't sell them and I'd have to go online to get one.

As well as the fact that back then phones progressed much faster so by the time your battery gave out, the new phone was much much better.

hendry• 3 years ago

Repair costs > value of phone https://dabase.com/blog/2023/iphone-repair-uk/

oldbbsnickname2• 3 years ago

Apple generally won't update iOS/iPad/tvOS devices after 7 years. And when that happens, apps will slowly stop updating too. If/when they stop signing certain OS versions, devices could potentially become un-restorable and un-activatable.

_the_inflator• 3 years ago

Hugely disappointed by Apple. After the latest Watch OS update the watch is effectively rendered useless, because it now needs three times a day recharging. Running 15km? Nope, not anymore.

4 years old, effectively rendered obsolete by a software update.

If you consider buying and replacing hardware as a subscription, the price finally doubled.

I was very proud of Apple for their long lasting hardware. A MacBook Pro from 2013 was 8 years very useful. But sadly this has changed drastically without reason.

joe__f2• 3 years ago

I used my 2009 MacBook white for 12 years. I did have to replace MacOS with Ubuntu for the last two or three years, and I upgraded the RAM and installed an SSD. I considered the initial high cost to be an investment and it paid off well. I would not buy a MacBook in the current market.

pharmakom3• 3 years ago

The current MacBook Airs are finally good value for money, like the 2009 generation MacBooks were.

dean2432• 3 years ago

upgrade of ssd and ram in a macbook? what kind of sorcery is this.

natch• 3 years ago

I know of a lot of hand me down phones in a lot of families with device models going back half a decade or more. Especially iPhones. I don’t think it’s a fair definition to say that a hand me down ends the lifespan.

bni• 3 years ago

Currently my mother in law uses iPhone XS I got back in 2018. Is very happy with it. It's the original battery in it still.

The problem is manufacturers of Android phones that stop meaningful software updates and support basically directly after sale.

iPhone have 8 years lifespan easily today. EU should mandate 10-12 years. I look forward to Samsung et al following that.

notanaverageman• 3 years ago

For a large group of people, lifespan of a phone is the same as the lifespan of the battery. They complain that the phone gets slower day by day, but they don’t know what causes it. Most of them come up with deleting WhatsApp messages so that the storage will be freed and phone will get faster.

Showing a persistent notification that “the battery has degraded and should be replaced” can increase the average lifespan of a smart phone significantly. These people don’t really care about shiny new apps or security patches. They just call people and send messages on WhatsApp. And maybe do some browsing on Facebook.

On iPhones, if the battery is degraded at least it drains up quickly and this hints that there is a problem with the battery. However, on most Android phones even 4-5 years old batteries last at least a day and they do so by reducing the CPU clock speed significantly. I know that Apple got fined for doing this in the past, but I haven’t heard any Android brand got fined for the same thing.

As anecdata, I have replaced the battery of my iPhone 6S at least three times and I will probably replace it again in a few months. And the phone is still very much usable.

Geeflow• 3 years ago

Reduced speed with degraded battery doesn't only happen for phones unfortunately. My Lenovo laptop is painfully slow when unplugged. I thought something is broken, but Lenovo told me it's because the battery is degraded. The consequences are similar as with phones: The battery can't be easily changed and the costs for letting it be changed by Lenovo are not worth it considering the age of the laptop. So I'll likely live with it until I'm annoyed enough to buy a new one.

pests2• 3 years ago

Also with some gaming laptops just cant provide the power output from the battery so needs to be plugged in for full performance.

thefz• 3 years ago

Will your cellphone work for a decade? Why the average lifespan of a smartphone is only three years

It's the same reason as how software moved from pay once, use the version forever, to subscriptions: to keep you spending money.

The EU should regulate this as well.

wmlive• 3 years ago

The major gripe i have with smartphones is that these are not general purpose computing devices like for example a Thinkpad (or any other type of computer) which allow for developing and installing alternate operating systems beyond the limits imposed by Android or that Apple OS thing.

The Pinephone was a great idea but it never become what it promised to be. Mine has essentially become electronic waste due to its lacking functionality.

I'd rather have a handheld computer with an alternate operating system and a replaceable phone communication module than any of the available options on the smartphone market.

Why the average lifespan of a smartphone is only three years

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