For example in mid 2017 it was still officially sold by Apple in India (source: https://www.iphonehacks.com/2017/05/apple-iphone-5s-iphone-s...).

If they were serious about competing with Apple software is where they should focus.

well in that case many cheap android phones/tablets would have negative support periods, considering they don't release any updates at all.

The support for MacBooks is actually great. Certain Late 2013 and Mid 2014 Retina MacBook Pros, while considered vintage, will be receiving the Big Sur update[2].

1. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624 2. https://www.apple.com/macos/big-sur-preview/ (at the bottom of the page)

I think it's more likely that Apple's new frameworks don't require any fancy hardware features that aren't available in the Late 2013 MacBook Pros.

I wonder how much this might change when Apple Silicon comes to the Mac.

I find 5G (coverage on mid-band, not the hyped speed on ultra-wideband) to be the most compelling reason to upgrade my phone this year.

Mojave and higher isn’t “supported” on the cheese grater Mac Pro’s despite it running more than fine, including with FileVault 2 enabled on the boot volume (which an Apple exec tried to claim was technically not possible).

The 2010 and 2012 Mac Pros officially support Mojave with a compatible video card:

Install macOS 10.14 Mojave on Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and Mac Pro (Mid 2012) https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208898

I have an old Samsung tablet that doesn't work anymore. I could try to change the battery for 20€ or buy the cheapest tablet on Amazon for 40€

Although this appears to be the end of the line as there is no graphic acceleration support in Big Sur

If I buy a new phone from the manufacturer and it's already unsupported, that's really bad. I don't care if it was supported for 8 years before I bought it.

Certainly not the Pixel phones, they get 3 years support from first launch only, and they're supposedly the gold standard for Android software support. It's pretty much the reason they exist. Yet after last sale support for the 5S matched the Pixel's from launch support, and we don't even know that this is the last update the 5S will get.

You can’t have your cake and eat it as well.

Only upside is the thing is built in such a way that it has barely taken any damage from the years of abuse I put it through.

I'm likely getting an iPhone 12 Pro Max very soon and will continue to only use the iPhone 5S I've had since 2013 as a backup.

if rated against _my_ body, the ratio is damn near perfect

Consider yourself unlucky and never buy a lottery ticket.

Apple is well-known for making products that last longer than most others in the industry.

I have a launch day iPhone 5 that gets daily use and still works fine as of this morning. Launch day was in September of 2012.

I still have a working iPhone 5 (no S) with a home button that spins and a slightly broken screen bezel but no other issues.

At one point I thought it died permanently. But it turned out to only be the screen dimming to much. In bright light it auto adjusted enough to be visible, allowing me to rise the brightness.

IIRC there's 128M of ram on the fist iPad.

The only problem I’ve had was a 2011 MBP have a gpu issue.

I write iOS software, so I have a whole bunch of test units.

My "low-end" test unit is an iPod Touch (last gen). Basically, a skinny SE (Apple doesn't even have an iPod simulator -you're supposed to use an SE sim).

My regular daily phone is an Excess Max (XSMax). I'm sick to death of it. I don't have much use for all that screen real estate, and it's a big honkin' monster.

Every time I use my Touch, it makes me envious.

I'll be placing an order for a Mini, tomorrow.

https://grapheneos.org/releases

The 5S was sold from Apple stores in India in mid 2017. So that's 3 years of updates from end-of-sale and this is an OS update for a 2 year old OS. So two years of support. Less than the Pixel.

It's part of why I went back to Apple.

Apple did not actually offer the replacement program within ~600km of my home, but I managed to convince them that an Apple Authorised Service provider in my town at least do it. They agreed and gave me a CS Code valid for the the battery replacement to be done.

But it was ultimately denied because of a tiny chip in the glass on the screen.

I really liked every other aspect of this phone though.

I'm going to play the odds and guess that you're not a battery designer.

* Only handsets with degraded batteries were throttled

* Replacing the battery returned the handset to full speed

* The only thing that changed after the fine was that you now have an option to stop the throttling and have unexpected reboots instead.

* All iPhones since then, including brand new iPhone 12s will throttle when the battery degrades.

Not only does the person not understand why it was done, and that it produced a phone that would be functional for longer lifetime than if it hadn't been implement, but he also continues spreading unhelpful information to others.

They were forced to pay over 500 Million Dollars for doing it

The feature still exists today. The brand new iPhone 12 will do the same thing on a degraded battery.

They didn't add that option until AFTER being caught