staff@slashgear.com (Rob Rich)
2024-04-28 12:15:38
www.slashgear.com
By Apple’s own admission, the countdown clock for when a specific product will be considered obsolete doesn’t start until the company stops distributing it. In other words, official support for the iPhone 15 won’t start to wind down until Apple decides it’s not worth selling anymore.
Once that threshold is reached, the product will continue to receive support for repairs for at least five more years, though it won’t fall into Apple’s “obsolete” (read: you’re on your own) until seven years past the date that sales were discontinued. Once an iPhone or other Apple product is considered obsolete, hardware servicing from Apple or licensed repair shops is out.
Software-wise, it’s a little more nebulous as it has more to do with whether or not the iPhone can handle a given iteration of iOS — or whether the newest version of iOS is designed to work on that iPhone model — rather than direct software support. Rather than an official statement on the matter or a planned timeline, we can make an educated guess. Going by current trends and past history, it’s likely that the iPhone 15 will be able to continue with iOS version updates for another five to six years after its initial release — as also evidenced by Apple’s most recent iOS 12 update in January of 2023 (a bit under five years from its 2018 release). So, expect the iPhone 15 to receive software updates through 2028 or 2029.