The manufacturer cannot guarantee that that the phone sold to a consumer will be replaced with a phone from the same company. So it's definitely within the interest of the company to support the phones for longer to keep consumers in the ecosystem.
Pretty sure that's the whole point of pixel 6.
This is how Linux maintains driver support for hardware long past the point where it doesn't work on modern Windows or MacOS. I've noticed several occasions where the support stops because the kernel was updated and nobody wants to make the effort to port the drivers forward, especially since those drivers were delivered as a binary blob.
But I also know that our products (PCs and printers) can't have that same support model, we'd be out of business and we don't have a lucrative ad business that could buy us customer loyalty via loss leaders. I think 5-8 years is reasonable.
The thing is - apple has the history / reputation here. Google has promised updates forever with various initiatives, rarely delivers.
Apple doesn't actually promise much here that I know of, but seems to deliver and deliver.
On apple, iOS 15.2 is available for a phone that is 8 years old?
Based on past experience, I expect if I bought an iOS device today - I'd have updated for at least 5 years.
Apple was releasing updates for iOS 12 as recently as 2021. That's for phone back from 2013 (!).
https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en-G...
Why must software always need to be updated? Software can be stable.
This industry makes throwaway software just so it can keep pumping hardware forever.