The 6s will still get security updates for another few years anyway but it's unreasonable to expect anything more for older devices like this.
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Rumor Claims iOS 15 to Drop Support for iPhone 6s and Original iPhone SE
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Very true - the 6S was a classic ’S’ update in that it massively improved the phone and was a far better product overall, while enabling owners of the previous model to claim that nothing had changed. If this rumour is true, the 6S will have had a full year longer of software support than the 6 - and without bending or suffering “Touch Disease” along the way either..
If I remember correctly, the 6 did not get iOS 13. So that would be more like two years.
I believe the OP meant years of support counting from the time the device was released. So even though the 6s got 2 additional versions of iOS compared to the 6, it only got 1 more year of support since it was released 1 year later.
I disagree. No company will purposely sabotage itself. Doing something to lower sales is just that. Sure Apple is all about the environment but bottom line is they're in business to make money. Apple could stop making new products and then people would buy less. I mean if they didn't make the iPhone 12 I would still be using my iPhone XS because it's still working perfectly. Same goes with the new M1 Mac mini they just released. I will be buying one. If they didn't make the new M1 MacBook Air so many people would still use their old MacBook Air.
Sure companies like Apple do wonderful things for the environment and try their best. This best will go all the way up to and not including sabotaging the company or selling less stuff as you put it.
I'm not saying this isn't something you would want but rather something that isn't happening and I don't think it's going to happen.
I'm not ignorant on environmental challenges but most people and companies are only going to take it so far. I recycle cans but I'm not going to cut back on showering. I drive a fuel efficient car but not going to walk. It's the same with Apple they will do the solar thing and cut carbon emissions but they're not going to cut their own sales numbers. If they were going to do that they wouldn't be making all this new stuff for people to buy.
Followup to what I had posted above. I updated my 5 year old iPhone 6S+ to iOS 14.2 from iOS 13.7 and I am happy with iOS 14 so far. The UI seems very smooth and responsive. I don’t seem to be experiencing any lag in the apps that I use. It feels like a new device again. @biracialfamily91 the iPhone 6S is very much useful, even 5 years later, with the latest iOS version 14. It is amazing how long these iPhones can last. Other then replacing the battery last year, it has held up extremely well. My wife’s 6S+ has not held up as well. She is prone to dropping her phone and has cracked the screen and damaged the camera optical stabilizer. No issues with the lighting port on either phone. The camera on the 6S is the weakest part of the phone. Really looking forward to the improved cameras on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.biracialfamily91 said:
Why? At one stage 2 iPhone OS software updates was considered good, and slowly every couple of years that amount of support has increased. The last increase was the 5S being the first iPhone to get 5 updates
iPhone 3GS - First to get 3 software updates (iOS 4,5,6) in 2012
iPhone 4S - First to get 4 software updates (iOS 6,7,8,9) in 2015
iPhone 5S - First to get 5 software updates (iOS 8,9,10,11,12) in 2018
Doesn't seem too far fetched that the 6S would be the first to get 6 software updates (iOS 10,11,12,13,14,15) in 2021, considering numerous other iOS devices with 2GB of ram have been subsequently sold.
and you do realize
1. System requirements for Windows 10 is largely the same as Windows 7
2. Both are different though, you can’t just compare them
Either that or if Apple for some reason feels the need to include the COVID thing like in iOS 13/14 for iOS 15 there could be a chance iPhone 6S may get iOS 15 considering how many people still are using older iPhones because of that purpose
Maybe because the 6s is limited with RAM & CPU power. Either way, the 6s has had many years of support so no one should be surprised if it doesn't make the cut for iOS 15.
Unfortunately it is ignorance on our environmental challenges if you think that a) its going to be left to companies alone to decide and b) that even the companies themselves can get away with ignoring it.
There is no major company making electronics that's going to thrive if global warming goes out of control and their supply chain and their real estate, is vulnerable to flooding, storms etc, and their customers dealing with catastophes and cannot afford their products. So "see no evil" is not really an option.
Companies can gaslight people and lie about what's front of them, but they damn sure cannot gaslight the weather. It's real.
Moreover it should be obvious all government are not going to sit around and let companies play the pretend game, because govts are the ones who will have to deal with riots and mass public unrest.
The same is true. Just as coronavirus made it such that maybe you just were forced to sit at home, you may be forced to walk or bike, by pricing you out of car use, or rationing it. Forget about recycling cans - you may need to show up at the shop with your own refillable bottle.
Forget this fantasy in which you think it will be all left to consumers who dont know, to "choose", and to companies who dont care, to do nothing. Its not gonna be like that all all
Sorry but I don’t want the government telling me when I’m allowed to upgrade my iPhone. I hope you find a country that has the restrictions you’re looking for. I’m all for environmental changes to make things better but there’s extremes on both sides. I find most people advocating these extremes aren’t living them. If they had to actually live them most wouldn’t be advocating them. For the few remaining that would actually do the stuff like only have the very basics, not drive a car or not have air-conditioning in their house I commend them but that doesn’t mean I’m going to do the same.
And the 5s just saw another 12.x update pretty recently. The OS may be older, but its still an update noentheless with a couple of new features.
the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 have the same ram (2GB) as the 6S, as do the iPad 9.7 2017 and iPad 9.7 2018.
I would guess the iPhone 6s has cpu and graphics limitations that may make it sluggish with newer OS updates, making for a pretty mediocre user experience compared to 14.x.
There is also fewer 6S's in the wild this stage than any other subsequent iPhone - it doesn't make any sense to have development teams trying to troubleshoot software / hardware issues on devices that have been off the market for many many years and the remaining ones in comparably limited numbers.
You simply don't keep upgrading the OS on older devices if the user experience will suffer just because "shiny" - Security updates to the more smooth running OS, sure, but not the entire operating system.
It's up to developers to decide how backward compatible they want to make their apps. If they are utilising new architectures or graphics engines that the old devices are not capable of using that's up to them. No different than newer AAA game titles that require a beastly graphics card, upgrade your iDevice when apps stop working.
The Apple ecosystem is based around designing a combination AND software that is as good as it can get given the hardware limitations on any given device.
Apple does not try and shoe-horn a "made for anything" OS into devices just "capable" of running the new features. It's bad for the users and its bad for business to have their customers having a less than excellent experience on ANY of their products. That can be avoided by simply dropping major OS update support on a legacy device.
I'm all for longevity, but I'd really hate to see how the performance of iOS 13/14 would fare on my 5S .. but most any app I use daily still work just fine outside of some newer games.
If the OS was never going to see ANY updates again, I might feel differently, but Apple have proven time and again that they are willing to push out important features and updates to their older operating systems as needed.
Having limits on the longevity of technology can be a good thing as it drives older less-efficient technologies out of the marketplace ..... Flash for example.
I for one feel better that the Apple team is focusing primarily on streamlining iOS for the next generation of devices rather than wasting time looking at what they can support from 6 or 7 years ago.
There is also fewer 6S's in the wild this stage than any other subsequent iPhone - it doesn't make any sense to have development teams trying to troubleshoot software / hardware issues on devices that have been off the market for many many years and the remaining ones in comparably limited numbers.
You simply don't keep upgrading the OS on older devices if the user experience will suffer just because "shiny" - Security updates to the more smooth running OS, sure, but not the entire operating system.
It's up to developers to decide how backward compatible they want to make their apps. If they are utilising new architectures or graphics engines that the old devices are not capable of using that's up to them. No different than newer AAA game titles that require a beastly graphics card, upgrade your iDevice when apps stop working.
The Apple ecosystem is based around designing a combination AND software that is as good as it can get given the hardware limitations on any given device.
Apple does not try and shoe-horn a "made for anything" OS into devices just "capable" of running the new features. It's bad for the users and its bad for business to have their customers having a less than excellent experience on ANY of their products. That can be avoided by simply dropping major OS update support on a legacy device.
I'm all for longevity, but I'd really hate to see how the performance of iOS 13/14 would fare on my 5S .. but most any app I use daily still work just fine outside of some newer games.
If the OS was never going to see ANY updates again, I might feel differently, but Apple have proven time and again that they are willing to push out important features and updates to their older operating systems as needed.
Having limits on the longevity of technology can be a good thing as it drives older less-efficient technologies out of the marketplace ..... Flash for example.
I for one feel better that the Apple team is focusing primarily on streamlining iOS for the next generation of devices rather than wasting time looking at what they can support from 6 or 7 years ago.
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Not the same CPU though.
Either way, it's ok if they drop support for old devices like the 6s.
I’m running iOS 14.2 on my 6S+ and it runs very smooth, actually surprisingly smooth. iOS 14 runs better on the 6S+ than iOS 13 did, from my experience.
The 6S was a year newer though, so what I meant was it got an extra year’s worth of updates on top of what the 6 received. And by most accounts it runs iOS 14 better today than the 6 ran iOS 12, due to both its better processor and doubled ram.
I don't doubt it .. but 15.x or 16.x may include require hardware features that are required for optimum performance.
How would you feel about it if the next update "worked", but all that smoothness was gone because the GPU is not quite up to par. In that case it would be better to call it a day at the best running OS rather than the latest.
I am going to keep my iPhone SE on 14.2. I want to still be able to use it in case of emergency. I don’t want to risk iOS 15 sucking the life out of the CPU and the limited RAM.
I was not advocating that Apple should include the iPhone 6S in the hardware requirements for iOS 15. I was just commenting how well iOS 14 runs on the 6S+. I am planning on replacing the 6S+ with a 12 Pro Max anyways. My upgrade is prompted by the larger screen, improved cameras and T-Mobile giving a good trade-in amount for my 6S+. Really looking forward to having a camera capable of taking really good pictures in low light situations.
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The iPhone 6s will be 6 years old by this time next year. There’s probably so few of them in circulation that Apple may not find it worth their while to support it any further.
It has been happening every since man developed software. While the bugs can be frustrating at times, I think Apple still does an excellent job.
