I am not arguing the "what if". I will not pretend to know the reasons or lack thereof for cutting support. And frankly, I do not care, as I do not own an iPhone 7, or ever have.
I’ve replied, I think to you specifically, about how it’s unrealistic to expect Apple to maintain the old lock screen for the iPhone 7 if the new one doesn’t work well or at all on it. It would be one thing if it were one app or some fairly minor piece of the whole OS, but the lock screen operates at the same level as the window server, the home screen, or even loginwindow (these are the programs that draw the entire user interface, handle all user events, and manage everything about the GUI state of the OS). These are privileged GUI components that make up critical parts of the user interface.
It's still a shame that you buy a phone in 2019 and in 2022 it's not updated anymore and already obsolete.
I think you are thinking of macOS. iOS has never really had updates past the release of the next version, with the exception of iOS 12, which seemed to randomly receive some security updates over the next year or so. That may have been a one-off however. It would be really nice if Apple made a statement about this...
Your own argument defeats you. You stated it would be odd for Apple to keep the old Lock Screen on the iPhone 7, but Apple is doing exactly that on the A9 iPad and other iPads without the neural processing power to support the Lock Screen.
IPhone software upgradable OS support is not indefinite, all consumers should recognize that. Neither should a consumer assume that when they buy an older iPhone a couple years later that the software support would be any different than if they had bought it when it was first available.
You probably shouldn't have bought a 2016 phone in 2019 if you want the same OS updates as a 2019 phone.
It's not obsolete (by either the literal term, nor Apple's terminology), nor is it any less secure or have less features than the day you bought it. If you bought an iPhone 7 in 2019, you certainly paid less than the original launch price.
Try explaining that to an average person who just saw a shiny iPhone at an entry point price at Apple Store and has no idea that the device they are being offered is actually a few years old. Apple doesn’t market their phones based on the year released (hell, they don’t do it for any of their products), they sell them as price points and go on features or the lack of as the explanation to the average consumer who doesn’t read forums like we do. Essentially a lot of people buying their products have no idea that the cheaper ones are just a couple of generations old. This is where Apple is wrong when it comes to transparency to the customers.
It’ll still allow then to do that on iOS 15 as well so what’s the problem?
iPhone 7, iPhone 8, iPhone X (ten). How is this not obvious to anyone considering spending $500? I have several family members who bought iPhone 7 both at launch and even a year later. No one was confused or misled.
I’m sorry, but that’s not immediately obvious. Let’s look at it this way. Let’s assume it is the lock screen for now. The lock screen is a very low level process (well, at least in terms of the GUI stack) and is a key OS component. It’s not realistic to release a version of iOS 16 without it or with the old lock screen.
Apple has been the leader in technology because it has the guts to move on from obsolete tech. Windows was hampered for years because of backwards compatibility.
iOS 13 was the last version to drop any previously supported devices, and iOS 12 received extended security support (for about two years). That’s why people are expecting iOS 15 to get continued security support. I seem to remember Apple’s logic at the time being that devices with iOS 13 could update to get new security fixes but that devices stuck on iOS 12 couldn’t, but that might just have been my view on the whole thing.
