Well many of the features of later OSes could not be run on older phones. The one that I can recall is Siri. Eventually they will have to end of life them.


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I think the original iPhone stopped getting upgrades with either version 3 or 4... Heck the original iPad was chucked on the scrap heap in little over a year.

More fool you if you threw it away. I still use mine every day.

Why do people go along with the idea that as soon as a device stops getting system updates then it is 'obsolete' or 'outdated'? It isn't, it's still as useful as it was the day before the end-of-life announcement was made, just it's probably not going to get any more useful in the future. if it wasn't useful to you before that, why the hell did you buy it? Apart from the obvious fact that if we applied the same criteria across the entire technology spectrum, there'd be entire generations of mobiles phones that were 'on the scrapheap' the day they left the factory, as they never received any sort of firmware or functionality update at all (and I'm not talking about phones from years ago either).

You're not required to replace or dispose of a device just because the company that made it wants you to buy their new one instead.

It hard to complain since they've been out since 2007.
That might not be long for just an OS on a computer, but for a whole device that's not a bad life cycle at all.

I do agree my last phone was more than eight years old when I replaced it with an iPhone. At the moment I am tied to my contract for just over a year more but that is not a problem, and I might keep it for as long as possible. Still not convinced about trading in my phone every year.


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I used my last phone until the physical buttons stopped working. (HTC Desire)
The phone before that I used until it snapped in half. (Samsung X820)
So the last time I got a new phone for the sake of getting a new phone was in 2006.
I expect to use my current HTC One X+ way beyond the two year contact I'm on.

I kept my iPhone 3G until the 4S came out. The 3G is still, in use here - my wife has it and seems to be getting on with it. There is more life in these devices than the manufacturers like you to think. The 3GS will be used until the battery gives out.

That's what I thought... until I tried to use my Touchpad recently. Websites that used to work perfectly just don't work at all any more, and because I can't update the device I'm shafted.

Websites like the BBC and channel 5 for example will not play video any more, without the impossible update. They were fine just last October.

Also several of the apps have stopped working because the services they rely on have changed. Again, I need the impossible updates. Dropbox being one crucial example, along with my TV guide app which I really liked.

Luckily Wikipedia and Gmail still work, along with any of the simpler websites. My mum is using it now.

Unfortunately, the world moves on regardless...

Android/flash problem in some cases? I installed an old Adobe flash APK on my new Android tablet since Adobe gave up the fight - too many sites look like [LIFTED] or just plain don't function without it still.

The one thing I'm missing from my Android 4.1 phone is Flash.
Like you said, some videos don't work.

I didn't have to root the tablet or anything, and it hasn't had any noticeable effect on battery life. Dunno if that would be true of a phone though, and my tablet's a quad core job.

Indeed. Every penny I earn is made on a G5 using cs3 and textwrangler.

I will upgrade, but it's not like it's completely necessary yet.

Android, no. It's WebOS. And it was very nice indeed to start with.

Flash, yes. For the Channel 5 catch-up I think I need a newer version. I havn't a clue what's wrong with iPlayer - it just says it's not compatible with the device. It was fine less than 6 months ago.


It's not just "some videos" - it's pretty much every streaming TV and video service, like iPlayer.

Would you consider flashing it with 'droid? (I seem to recall people tinkering). I appreciate your mum possibly doesn't care

iPlayer has had a fair few tweaks across devices in recent months.