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Is it time to question the yearly release cycle for phones? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip to c/technology@lemmy.world

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So recently I've been seeing the trend where Android OEMs such as Google, Samsung, etc. have been extending their software release times up to like five, six, and seven years after device release. Clearly, phone hardware has gotten to the point where it can support software for that long, and computers have been in that stage for a very long time. From what I can tell, the only OEM that does this currently might be Fairphone.

Edit: The battery is the thing that goes the fastest so manufacturers could just offer new batteries and that would solve a lot of the problem.

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[–] candyman337@sh.itjust.works 23 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Conservation wise there is a very big reason to slow down the release cycle

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

No, there isn't. People who are buying new phones every year are trading them in, and they're going to other people who are more price conscious.

Manufacturing several year old tech results in brand new hardware with a shorter life cycle. You're not going to get 5 or 10 years of updates on a phone that was 5 years behind tech advancement when you bought it.

The people chasing novelty would do so by jumping manufacturers instead, so you don't change their behavior at all.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 11 points 3 days ago

And like you said, sometimes you need to replace a phone.

Maybe it was lost, or destroyed.