Your Smartphone Will Be Obsolete In Two Years

The urban legend is that inside every piece of high-tech equipment is
a little chip that will go off and destroy the hardware once the
warranty runs out so you have to buy a new device. While it is a myth,
the rapid iteration of hardware and software in today's smartphones
offer the same impression.

When you buy a smartphone, you want to know that it is being supported
for all of its working life. At the very least, that means two years
in a new smartphone (the life of a standard contract) and I would
argue that another year on top of that would make sense.

Hardware in smartphones should be designed to last for a number of
years, and I think software should also remain valid for three years.
This should clearly include patches for bugs and security issues, but
what is also needed is a clear message from the manufacturers on
software updates.

At the moment it's far too easy for manufacturers to not pass on
updates to the underlying operating system. Google's development of
Android is streaking ahead, with Android 5.1 being worked on and bug
fixes for Android 5.2 already in place. Yet for the majority of people
on older handsets, the chances of even Android 5.0 arriving in the
near future is slim. Even Google has noted that security updates to
older versions of Android are being stopped.

To take the example of one manufacturer, Sony has announced that
Android 5.0 will be rolling out to Xperia handsets over the next week
or so, but apart from the Xperia T2 Ultra and C3, these updates will
be restricted to later handsets in the 'Z' series, but no further.

While Android handset sales are growing and the platform dominates the
current market share numbers, the profit and income levels derived
from these handsets is dropping.This leaves manufacturers with fewer
resources in mobile device budgets. How much of that can be allocated
to supporting existing hardware, and how much is spent on research and
development, is a tricky equation.

I wonder if the squeeze on Android profits is partly to blame for the
slowing down of Android updates, and of the restrictions on older
devices receiving the latest updates?

Neither is Android alone in this little quandary. Apple has the same
issues albeit not on a financial level. Although the latest version of
iOS will run on hardware reaching back to iPhone 4S, the advances in
hardware means that the chipset and technical specifications of the
iPhone 4S running iOS 8 is hobbled at best, and crippled at worst. The
impression given? Time to update if you want to make best use of the
latest software.

There's no real answer to the question of years-old hardware becoming
'too slow' to run the latest build of an operating system (perhaps
Project Ara although that is a long way from reaching the mainstream),
but there's no excuse when the hardware is less than a year old and
there is a version of the mobile OS which will comfortably run on the
current technical specifications.
--forbes.com