Nowadays electronic devices seem to have an “expiration date” after a few years, thus becoming almost unusable. Although no company will say directly that a smartphone can’t provide a good experience after 2-3 years, the truth is that users have experienced this “strategy” on their own.
It seems that Apple is reluctant to provide this expiry date, but it was hidden in a place that only a few people see it: the details about how the company protects the environment.
Among recycling policies and the methods that Apple generates and uses energy, Apple provides some information about the expected time of using their devices. It seems that for iOS and watchOS, meaning iPad, iPod, iPhone and Apple Watch, the company is expecting that these products to operate for three years before users replace them with newer generations.
For products equipped with OS X and tvOS, (iMac, Macbook, Mac Mini, Mac Pro and Apple TV), the company says that these should operate optimally for four years. These statistics don’t take into account the recycling, refurbishing and selling products, but confirms that there is so-called “planned obsolescence”. It seems that three or four years is the plan for software support of these devices too, many devices being left behind by newer versions of operating systems.