A new regulation in the UK that makes companies commit numerous specs and reports to the UK’s Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI), which is the United Kingdom’s version of the CRTC, has revealed Apple’s minimum support window for a phone. According to this database, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is slated to get at least five years of security updates.
When you look at Apple’s list of phones that support iOS 17, that aligns with what’s on display. The oldest phone that supports the latest update is 2018’s iPhone XR, which, in 2024, is six years of full feature updates, not just security updates.
Peering deeper into Apple’s security update list, we can see that the company has pushed security updates to the iPhone 8 (and other phones from 2017) three times so far in 2024. Older devices like 2015’s iPhone 6s and the iPod Touch 7th-gen have also received two security updates in 2024. That’s nine years of updates. That said, these are more infrequent than newer models, which receive many more updates.
While it’s disappointing to see Apple only commit to five years of security updates when Android manufacturers like Google and Samsung are committing to seven years of real OS updates, I wouldn’t read much into this. Neither Google nor Samsung have the track record for actually supporting phones in the long run like Apple has. While Apple has laid out a minimum support window to comply with UK guidelines, I have more faith in the company since it has supported its older phones in the past.
