Apple’s Policy for Supporting Old iPhones Revealed

A common thing that occurs whenever a new version of the iPhone gets released is that sales of previous versions of the iPhone start to increase as well. The reason behind this is that older versions of the phone become cheaper whenever a new version ends up getting released, but one factor that often impacts people’s ability to buy an older iPhone model is the question of whether or not it would support the latest version of iOS.

With Apple releasing the latest versions of its various operating software, the question now arises of how far back you can go if you truly want to be able to take advantage of the numerous security features and added benefits that iOS 15 will have to offer. The good news here is that even people that use the now extremely old iPhone 6 will be able to download this update since Apple has made it so that the new operating system would be compatible with these older iPhone models.

One thing to note here is that iPhone 6 and 6S users might not be able to avail the full scope of iOS 15 since some of its features will be too technically advanced but this doesn’t change the fact that these users would at the very least have the option to update their OS if they so choose.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Apple has been trying rather hard to create an ecosystem wherein users can make the most of their operating systems without having to switch to a newer iPhone. This is a practice that isn’t all that common in the industry and it sort of goes against the theory that Apple attempts to make its older phones redundant as quickly as possible.

iOS 15 will now have the longest reaching compatibility when you look at older iPhone models. This is especially impressive when you take into account the fact that iOS 13’s compatibility looks quite similar to what iOS 15 has to offer, with phones older than the iPhone 6 not really being able to take advantage of this operating system.

Apple has faced a lot of criticism in the past for its practice of planned obsolescence which resulted in software updates rendering old phones more or less unusable. It’s fairly clear now that the company is trying to learn from its mistakes, and users of older iPhone models might start to rejoice when they realize that they will be able to take advantage of the massive security updates that iOS 15 will bring their way without necessarily being forced to buy a new phone entirely.

Chart: H/T: Statista.

Featured Photo: NurPhoto via Getty Images

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