iPhone 7/Plus Apple had the "courage" to end support for the iPhone 7 (iOS 16)

[subjonas]

Not sure if it’s ended uniquely early. Maybe some phones end support earlier than others for some reason. Maybe it’s for a legit reason, maybe not. There’s so much technical and logistical knowledge I don’t have and could probably never have unless I work for Apple, that I couldn’t really say.
That’s actually my take on most things—unless I’m certain my knowledge is reasonably complete (usually isn’t), then I refrain from making judgments unless I have to.

 

[arian71]

EU should force Apple or anyone to introduce lifetime software support for their products.. is ridiculous iphone 13 in 5 years will not be supported. And time for 2 year warranty on hardware, f..... capitalist

 

[ian87w]

EU should force Apple or anyone to introduce lifetime software support for their products.. is ridiculous iphone 13 in 5 years will not be supported. And time for 2 year warranty on hardware, f..... capitalist

The legislators probably don't understand what software is or mean.
I mean do people forget that the EU wanted to practically end encryption?

The EU Commission’s New Proposal Would Undermine Encryption And Scan Our Messages

The executive body of the European Union published today a legislative proposal (text) that, if it became law, would be a disaster for online privacy in the EU and throughout the world. In the name of fighting crimes against children, the EU Commission has suggested new rules that would compel a...

www.eff.org

 

[smokesletsgo]

It's perfectly reasonable. For iPhone 7, thats 6 years of full iOS releases, even one year more than iPhone 4s got.

When its old, its old... Not one manufacturer offers even HALF of the lifetime that Apple does. Forcing updates is stupid, EU politicians are stupid, they are good at destroying not creating, nobody needs them and we have enough of their useless regulations already.

 

[arian71]

It's perfectly reasonable. For iPhone 7, thats 6 years of full iOS releases, even one year more than iPhone 4s got.

When its old, its old... Not one manufacturer offers at least HALF of the lifetime that Apple does. Forcing updates is stupid, EU politicians are stupid, they are good at destroying not creating, nobody needs them and we have enough of their useless regulations already.

enjoy your yearly buying product
iphone 7 plus works perfectly , why end support?
At least EU has some food regulations, unlike us and aca murica

 

[Andeddu]

enjoy your yearly buying product
iphone 7 plus works perfectly , why end support?
At least EU has some food regulations, unlike us and aca murica

Disagree. That’s like saying no company can innovate because they have to continually offer support to the lowest end hardware. In my eyes, 5-6 years of support is perfectly reasonable. If you can’t save up enough money for a new phone over a 5-6 year period, never mind the monthly purchasing and rental plans, then you should purchase an ALCATEL for $20 and be done with it.

 

[KOTN91]

EU should force Apple or anyone to introduce lifetime software support for their products.. is ridiculous iphone 13 in 5 years will not be supported. And time for 2 year warranty on hardware, f..... capitalist

Can’t tell if this is sarcastic or not, but Apple already supports its devices for way longer than competitors. Do you really expect to buy one phone and for it to be supported indefinitely? It’s not like they’re forcing to upgrade every year. iPhone 6S and 7 have had 7 and 6 years of support, I think that’s extremely generous

 

[Bodhitree]

I upgraded my iPhone 7 to a 13 Pro late last year, six years is long enough to have a phone. Computers though, that is a different thing, I believe there should be security updates for at least ten years, especially now that computers are lasting longer and longer.

For about a decade now we have been in the era of “Fast Enough”, most people once they have a computer with an SSD drive in it don’t really need a new one until the old one breaks, the old excuse of “the new computer is twice as fast” only comes along every decade or so with the slower improvements rather than every two years.

We will reach that point soon with smartphones as well, where all future improvements are such small increments that it is only worth upgrading once in a decade.

 

[Andeddu]

I upgraded my iPhone 7 to a 13 Pro late last year, six years is long enough to have a phone. Computers though, that is a different thing, I believe there should be security updates for at least ten years, especially now that computers are lasting longer and longer.

For about a decade now we have been in the era of “Fast Enough”, most people once they have a computer with an SSD drive in it don’t really need a new one until the old one breaks, the old excuse of “the new computer is twice as fast” only comes along every decade or so with the slower improvements rather than every two years.

Computers are fine and they do last 10 plus years. I have an underpowered Alienware M11x from 2010 which is an 11 inch laptop on an ultra low voltage processor. I can only run Windows 7 however and Internet Explorer doesn’t work due to all the new website plugins being unsupported, but I am able to install FireFox which allows the computer to display all websites as intended. I can now stream Disney+ and Netflix on the thing and it’s a viable machine for pretty much any use again, other than modern gaming and video processing. Apple is different because iOS is a closed and locked operating system. I don’t mind though, I prefer a more curated experience with fewer bugs and glitches.

 

[AppliedMicro]

Can't wait until the USB-C iPhone come out, and Apple selling a boatload of USB-C cables at $20 each.

We’ll, at least they aren’t proprietary or need to be MFI-certified anymore.

And time for 2 year warranty on hardware, f..... capitalist

EU has that already as a consumer right. Just against the seller that they have a contract with, not against the manufacturer (which makes sense… since not every manufacturer is in the EU).

ridiculous iphone 13 in 5 years will not be supported

Support doesn’t always mean update to newest functionality and OS. But I sure hope they’ll provide security updates.

 

[imagineadam]

Launch 128 GB JB iPhone 7 user here. I’m totally fine with them ending support. I held off updating to 15 until late march and I was disappointed that my phone did in fact finally start to feel a tick slower than on iOS 14 but it’s still perfectly usable.

It’s been a great phone and I can’t wait to update to the 13 mini this fall when they drop the prices. I guess they “got me” but I couldn’t be happier with the value that I got out of this thing for the past 6 years and I’ll gladly hand it down to my middle schooler when I get my 13 mini and it will work just fine for even a few more years.

 

[oofio2461]

Can’t tell if this is sarcastic or not, but Apple already supports its devices for way longer than competitors. Do you really expect to buy one phone and for it to be supported indefinitely? It’s not like they’re forcing to upgrade every year. iPhone 6S and 7 have had 7 and 6 years of support, I think that’s extremely generous

iPhones should have 8 years of Software updates at a minimum, with 2 years of security updates.

 

[Saladin12]

iPhones should have 8 years of Software updates at a minimum, with 2 years of security updates.

What are you basing this on?

 

[jakeuten]

The dramatics and entitlement in this thread. By all means, tell me where the Galaxy S7 and Note 7 () are in terms of software updates. Or security patches. Lmfao.

 

[Slartibart]

The dramatics and entitlement in this thread. By all means, tell me where the Galaxy S7 and Note 7 () are in terms of software updates. Or security patches. Lmfao.

Yep. What about updates for the Note 7? By all reporting a really hot topic and a truly burning question… 🤣😂🤪

 

[mpavilion]

Yeah. I think the biggest miss is the SE because there is no other iPhone with a similar form factor. Even the Mini is a giant compared to the original SE. The 7 form factor is alive and well so those who want to continue with it can move onto the SE’22 and have 5-6 years further iOS support.

Unfortunately the 7+ form factor is only available in a refurbed 8+ (if you can snag one), and beyond that… the old hope of an “SE+” using that chassis seems more and more unlikely, sadly.

 

[Crow_Servo]

Unfortunately the 7+ form factor is only available in a refurbed 8+ (if you can snag one), and beyond that… the old hope of an “SE+” using that chassis seems more and more unlikely, sadly.

I would probably buy an SE+ for the return of the 5.5" un-notched iPhone, but I'd be even happier with a Liquid Retina SE with TouchID in the power button. That phone is the more likely version we'll be getting someday.

 

[SmugMaverick]

Can’t tell if this is sarcastic or not, but Apple already supports its devices for way longer than competitors. Do you really expect to buy one phone and for it to be supported indefinitely? It’s not like they’re forcing to upgrade every year. iPhone 6S and 7 have had 7 and 6 years of support, I think that’s extremely generous

Completely agree, Pixels and Galaxies finally get 5 years of updates now so I can see why Apple is just staying a year or 2 ahead to stay on top.

I get why people are annoyed but 6 years is a good run in the tech world, and my 2015 MacBook Pro won't be getting Ventura either but thats life and they're a business so it's time to upgrade.

 

[Blaqout20]

I really don’t see why Apple wants to drop the iPhone 7 models. My theory is they deliberately want to get rid of non Face ID iPhones. But they are mistaken, why would you try to now drop out some iPhones and support others whilst android is your competitor. Apple is going to lose a lot of their customers because of this huge mistake. But I recommend iPhone 7 should be able to run iOS 16

 

[cynics]

The iPhone 7 can't run iOS 16, it can't even run iOS 15. Its literally running the iPhone 7 version of iOS 15. iOS 15 Lite...

There is what? 50 or so features the iPhone 7 hasn't gotten over the last 3 updates because it either completely lacks the hardware (FaceID camera, Neural Engine, Wireless Charging, Fast Charging, BT 5.0, etc) or lacks the computational prowess with the hardware it does have (can't use car or hotel keys due to lack of security, no high detailed city maps, background animation in weather, portraits in FaceTime, really basic stuff).

Why want an update when you aren't getting anything more then a couple UI changes? At this point you could pretend you got iOS 16 and it wouldn't be much different then the version you would have actually got.

The API's and features Apple forced onto the device literally kill it. Using VR with ARKit kit makes the phone (and its battery) so hot many consider it a safety hazard to have it that close to your face. HEVC decoding is poor at best, other iPhones transcode the h264 version for it as if they feel bad...

Apples kept the thing on life support purely to get the 6 year mark. Its been a hinderance on everyone involved including 3rd party developers that need to make their apps/games appealing to iPhone 13 users and somehow function at all on the iPhone 7 and 6S. The iPad 5th gen is the same way, but Apple is gonna support it for another round of iOS just to get to that arbitrary 6 year mark.

Now many will say, I don't need/want portrait mode in FaceTime, spacial audio, wide spectrum, spatial audio, HDR playback, Live Text, Quick Zoom, Siri offline on device processing, walking steadiness in the health app, etc etc and thats perfect, you aren't getting anything you didn't want. Ironically its usually the people with really old devices that say iOS has gotten stale when its actually because those people have basically been using very very mildly updated version of iOS for several years.

It will still get security updates and it will still function just fine. You could use it for a years to come. I wouldn't blame someone that keeps using it if it still works, its just odd they are mad about it. My iMac on Catalina I'm typing this on works just fine. I knew it was time to replace my iPhone back when I was able to interact with the screen out of muscle memory faster then it could process my taps. Literally something in the background running would cause the feedback from typing to hang and then all at once it would pop up.

 

[Blaqout20]

Why would Apple copy Android by putting customization on the iPhone. This doesn’t make sense. If that’s the case then is better to use an android. At least it is very economical.

 

[Blaqout20]

Apple should let every iPhone user to run iOS 16 beta and give a feedback to know their phones performance before dropping out some phones. Who knows maybe the iPhone 7 models will work more efficiently than expected

 

[thv]

Why would Apple copy Android by putting customization on the iPhone. This doesn’t make sense. If that’s the case then is better to use an android. At least they have like 10years support and is very economical.

Apple should let every iPhone user to run iOS 16 beta and give a feedback to know their phones performance before dropping out some phones. Who knows maybe the iPhone 7 models will work more efficiently than expected

I really don’t see why Apple wants to drop the iPhone 7 models. My theory is they deliberately want to get rid of non Face ID iPhones. But they are mistaken, why would you try to now drop out some iPhones and support others whilst android is your competitor. Apple is going to lose a lot of their customers because of this huge mistake. But I recommend iPhone 7 should be able to run iOS 16

1. It's possible to like a feature of androids, and still prefer using an iPhone for a variety of reasons.

2. Apple knows if their software runs on their own phone. People can argue about whether it would really run poorly (in that case keep in mind that if they did allow 7's to get it and it did make the phone run poorly, there would be complaints, too) or if it's just to make you buy a newer phone at some point, but either way they're surely aware

3. 10 years? Where is this number even from?

4. re: losing customers - I can't blame anyone for not upgrading their phone yet if it works for them, but when we're talking about getting the iPhone 14 and you're still hoping for more out of your 7, Apple probably has better customers to focus on

 

[Al Rukh]

I don’t really care for it. Even if hypothetically the 7 series supported iOS 16, the battery life will be severely crippled. All that dynamic weather lock screen, live updates and interactive widgets, you’ll be lucky if a brand new 7 lasted 3 hours worth of SoT.