iOS 15 Rumored to Drop Support for iPhone 6s and 2016 iPhone SE

[ian87w]

I actually believe that they should support it for 10 years minimum.

Five years of actual upgrades. (After the last day it was sold by any authorized retailer)

And then five years of only security updates and Genius style support. (For 10 years of total support from the last day sold)

***
People who write software should have the same 10 year minimum support requirement.

Keeping technology parts for repairs/services for 10 year old devices would be challenging. Even for laptops that old, you'll be looking for used/fake parts, and the OEM would've already stopped supporting it.

As for the software part, considering that Apple is actually the leader in the mobile space (even Google cannot support their own Pixel phones that long), Apple doesn't have any motivation to go longer.

I do agree on ~10 years total of security updates, at least for Macs.

 

[TheDailyApple]

Nice. I was expecting the sevens to be dropped this year as well.

 

[hot-gril]

"Molon labe" when it comes to my 6S and its jack. But I understand why they're dropping support for something this old.

 

[Fred the Head]

6S and SE is susceptible to COVID-19, better upgrade.

Not anymor. Zhou Bai Den has the cure.

 

[joelhinch]

Nice. I was expecting the sevens to be dropped this year as well.

Too many 7’s out there, they’ve still got two more years (iOS15/16) in them I reckon.

 

[jwolf6589]

Darn - still loving my orig SE.

Upgrade to the new SE.

 

[ian87w]

Too many 7’s out there, they’ve still got two more years (iOS15/16) in them I reckon.

Hopefully. My 7+ is not even a year old yet... I hope it will be as long lasting as the iPad 7th gen which also has an A10 and was just released in 2019.

 

[insomniac86]

I'm surprised at the lack of iOS 15 leaks this time around.

I guess we have had AirTag code references littered through iOS since the iOS 13 beta's.
I wonder what Apple will surprise us all with this year.

 

[Jimmy James]

That was a good support life but still planned obsolescence. The 6s is still good.

 

[vmistery]

I think it’s time we moved past the opinion that 5/6 years is good. It was good with early phones but now there is much less reason for a 5/6 year old phone as they’re often working very well on later iOS versions and device security is now very important. What I’d like to see is something similar to MacOS or windows where a device doesn’t upgrade past a certain version but gets full and reliable security updates for a couple of extra years to replace the ad hoc patching devices like the 6 got. Microsoft manage for a £300 laptop so I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Apple too for a phone (especially when they can make money off extras like music and icloud). Yes there has to be a cut off but it’s time to extend that.

 

[ikramerica]

People need to learn to upgrade. My mom just upgraded from the iPad Mini (1) to the iPad Mini (5) because the majority of apps will no longer run on IOS 9.x. IOS 14.x will be supported for years to come so if people do not want to upgrade they can still keep their devices and run the apps for years to come.

Yet we still keep using our iPad 1 because so many fun games weren’t updated for later OSes, so having a 9.x device is nice. Have a brand new iPad as well. Actually, iPad 1, mini 4, and 3 iPads from the last 2 years. The only one that is truly crapping out is the mini4. Battery is bad, very slow now due to likely battery throttling. The original iPad battery is still running strong.

 

[Applicator]

To be fair, there's a 25-30% difference between A9 and A10 SoCs even without battery-related throttling. I'd prefer performance over support of the latest iOS. I mean, it's not like they're suddenly unusable. There will be at least another three years of security updates / fixes and support by all the main app developers.
And if you're fine with using your 5 year old Phone, I see no reason why you wouldn't be fine without the newest iOS

 

[laudern]

My iPhone se (2016) is.y only phone and is super fast still and all up to date. I reckon it could handle another update for sure.

 

[Paddle1]

I don't know if I believe this, the past few years this site has been at least partially incorrect with their support rumors, first saying the SE would be dropped with iOS 13 and then saying the iPad mini and Air 2 would be dropped with 14. Could see it going either way but history shows this site isn't to be 100% trusted.

Apple currently supports Macs as far back as 2013 and the older Air 2 has got 7 years so I don't see longer support as out of the question.

 

[bobob]

That was a good support life but still planned obsolescence.

If 6 years is planned obsolesence, then Android phone makers commit premeditated murder of their smartphones.

 

[sdz]

And people are still going to say Apple has planned obsolescence and is forcing you to upgrade after 5 years of software updates. Just continue using your android phone that’ll get 2, maybe 3 years of updates.

I get new Android devices for like 200€ with decent specs.
Apple starts at 500€.

What a stupid comparison. Of course I expect Apple to support its expensive devices longer. What else would be the reason to buy an Apple device?

 

[Mindgap]

I wouldn’t mind upgrading if I could get my beloved headphone jack back. Otherwise 6s for eternity!

 

[Applicator]

What else would be the reason to buy an Apple device?

showing off?

🤭jk

 

[SWAON]

So, I have 3 more years of support for my device, until then I need to upgrade. Apple, you better bring it soon!

 

[iSayuSay]

I actually believe that they should support it for 10 years minimum.

Five years of actual upgrades. (After the last day it was sold by any authorized retailer)

And then five years of only security updates and Genius style support. (For 10 years of total support from the last day sold)

***
People who write software should have the same 10 year minimum support requirement.

My original iPad Air (released at 2013) stuck with iOS 12, but still getting a few security updates every now and then. I don't know if it's going to be 10 years in total, but it's still getting some love after 7+ years.

Not bad, huh?

 

[Khaleesi Kendall]

6S and SE is susceptible to COVID-19, better upgrade.

Crying literal tears laughing

If this were to happen and iOS15 is already released, would we still be able to update an SE to ios14? Mine is still on ios11.

Why haven’t you upgraded yet? You should still be able to upgrade to whatever the most recent version of iOS 14 is

The original SE and 6s makes sense. 2017 iPad seems a bit early.

Not really. It’ll be 4 years by the time 15 comes out.

Samsung Galaxy S series and Google Pixel devices get 3 years of OS updates. That's at least half as long as Apple.

Qualcomm and Google are now working together to guarantee at least 4 years of OS updates.

Pixel devices are priced similarly to the SE (i.e. mid-range).

And now you know.

Samsung and pixel devices still don’t make up the majority of android devices. Using them as an example for android getting updates in a similar manner is ridiculous. Never mind the fact that you still have to wait on carriers and manufacturers and regions to get said updates.

the fact that many android phones launch with an already outdated Os and in 2021, some devices from the same manufacturer have different versions because Carrier a decided to release it before b, c, d.....trust me isn’t an argument you want to make for android.

more importantly the fact I can still go and buy a 6s from 2015 and a se from 2016 that is still running the same os as the 12 family and all the same apps and most of the same features....please tell me what android phones are even comparable from those time periods.

I’ll wait.

good on android or Google specifically for actually finally updating their devices and supporting them after a decade of watching Apple do it.

 

[Khaleesi Kendall]

Hope, Apple keeps supporting 6S for one more cycle. I am ok long as Apps keep running on IOS 14 after they are upgraded to run on newer IOS. No one wants to upgrade phone because it is perfectly working but the Apps need newer OS that is not supported on your phone.

You should be fine. I had to use my iPhone 5s and most apps wouldn’t work with it because it was on iOS 10 and the minimum I saw was iOS 11-12. I’d say you’d be fine with it until 2022 and you might run into issues then.

 

[MJaP]

This was to be expected, seeing as they dropped support for 5s and the 6 just recently. It's not like you're not going to be able to use your phone after the unsupported date, you could probably continue to use it for months/years after as long as you were careful and didn't browse any dodgy sites and only ran apps for the app store (which most everybody does anyway).

 

[femike]

A9 chip and with 2gb ram these phones will be fully capable for ios 15.

 

[Burebista]

Hope these reports are wrong. In this economic environment, there are plenty of folks with 6S’s that are not at liberty to buy new equipment.

As for my 6S and iPad Air 2, both are running rock solid with the latest iOS 14.

Look, the vast majority of folks who can’t afford to (or don’t want to) upgrade to a newer device have no reason to panic and run to buy one just because theirs can’t be updated to new iOS version.

It’s not like your phone is 100% secure just because it runs latest software. And similarly when you run it on older software, it doesn’t automatically become a target for some attack. That’s not how it works.