A chart from Fidlee.com published yesterday has made a visual attempt to showcase Apple’s incredible support for iOS on the iPhone, in comparison to the fragmented mess of Android updates. The chart shows how well supported each device is after each year of its lifespan.
As you can see, Apple’s iPhone is incredibly well supported, with all its devices receiving support well into their fourth year of release, it will be interesting to see whether this continues as Apple’s iPhones get older.
In comparison, 10 out of 16 Android devices were discontinued less than or equal to a year after their release. 6 out of the 16 devices never ran a current version of Android, and 4 out of 16 devices stopped getting updates a year after their release.
Of the 12 devices no longer scheduled to receive updates, none received updates for a duration of 2 years. Apart from the Nexus 4, all devices were at least one major version of software behind within their two year contract period, 13 of these were 2 versions behind after 2 years, and a further 8 were 2 major versions behind after just one year.
In regards to the iPhone, the 3GS was on the current version for 4 years and 3 months, and incredible feat. The iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4 were only discontinued 3 years and 4 months after their release.
Software support is incredibly important to a lot of people. If you’re looking to choose between iOS and Android, and you’re concerned about keeping up to date with software, then the choice really is a no-brainer.
Apple’s policy of yearly updates, released to everyone directly has created perhaps the most solid mobile software platform around. Apple’s policy also makes it incredibly easy to predict how much support a phone will receive, making it very easy to make decisions over upgrades and new purchases.
