That's true, but what we really need to know is what are the typical performance benchmarks that are required when launching a new software update? And does Apple change its internal performance requirements for older phones when new phones are released.

If internal documents from Apple showed that Dev's were allowed to release code that performed badly, but only at certain times of the release cycle, that news would be huge.

Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me.

Comparing to Samsung is just a joke - how often do android users even get the choice to update, not to mention how Samsung releases may or may not match up with Google (Android) ones.

My 4 year old Samsung received an update to 7.0 last month, and a security patch the week after. I agree android patching is poor compared to apple, but a lot of fault lies with the phone companies refusing to pass updates onto the end user rather then the company making the phone.

Your experience is accurate and makes the point.

Android releases are not generally available at a consistent time. Apple marches software release in lock-step with hardware release.

When you write an article citing a "study" based on a spike of Google searches, the Android based metrics will be more spread out because implementation of the new software is more spread out. A "study" should control for that sort of variance.

You got an android update 13 months after it was released and a month before the next major update will be released by google? You're making my point for me.

Apple users don't have that problem, and they use the same phone companies.

If Samsung agrees to let the networks dictate when updates will be released, that is their fault.

Well maybe someday instead of hacking governments, hackers might hack Apple, and the big banks, and leak those emails!