iPhone 6(S)/Plus Will the 6S, 7, 8 and X be dropped simultaneously next year?

[KOTN91]

It really is incredible and very generous that Apple support their phones for so long. iPhone 6S getting ios15 is incredible - even flagship Androids get 1-2 years at most. The iPhones age so well, I am temporarily back to a 7 due to losing my 12 and it’s amazing how capable this 5 year old phone is

That said, considering that Apple have not dropped any devices for 2 iOS updates now, coupled with the fact that the A12 seems to be the cut off for the more advanced features, could we see a large cull of devices with ios16 such as the iPhone 6S, 7, 8 and even the iconic X

 

[ericwn]

With Apple being so interested in services there’s really no telling how long they’ll keep each individual device around.

But the more services they sell and the more the technology matures the longer these will stick around and be supported.

 

[fwmireault]

Well, nobody can know for sure. That said I would be very surprised that it goes until the 8 and the X. They are still fairly recent products and have a very good processor even if it’s not A12 and upper. I think that Apple dropping eventually the 6S and/or the 7 is possible though. It always depend how many new features are integrated and how good the processor can handle these.

 

[Jynto]

2007 (original) - 3 years support
2008 (3G) - 3 years support
2009 (3GS) - 4 years support
2010 (4) - 4 years support
2011 (4S) - 5 years support
2012 (5) - 5 years support
2013 (5S) - 6 years support
2014 (6) - 5 years support
2015 (6S) - 7 years support

Judging by past precedent, every iPhone got the same or more support than the one before it, with the exception of the iPhone 6. (Not counting the 5C, because I consider that a continuation of the 5. Likewise the SE is a continuation of the 6S.) The iPhone 6 would fit this pattern better if it had a sixth year, which I'm guessing is what Apple originally planned to do, but maybe they couldn't get iOS 13 to run as smoothly on it as they would have wanted.

With that in mind, I think it's unlikely that any future iPhone gets less than 6 years of support from when the year it was first released. So even in the least optimistic scenario, I could see the iPhone 7 getting 6 years of support (if they drop it at the same time as the 6S) and the iPhones 8 and X getting 7 years, both being supported up to and including iOS 17.

I think it's more likely that all three of them get 7 years. And although I wouldn't consider an 8th year likely, I wouldn't rule it out either.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

A8, A8X, A9 and possibly A9X devices will go before the A10/A11 series devices..

 

[ericwn]

2007 (original) - 3 years support
2008 (3G) - 3 years support
2009 (3GS) - 4 years support
2010 (4) - 4 years support
2011 (4S) - 5 years support
2012 (5) - 5 years support
2013 (5S) - 6 years support
2014 (6) - 5 years support
2015 (6S) - 7 years support

Judging by past precedent, every iPhone got the same or more support than the one before it, with the exception of the iPhone 6. (Not counting the 5C, because I consider that a continuation of the 5. Likewise the SE is a continuation of the 6S.) The iPhone 6 would fit this pattern better if it had a sixth year, which I'm guessing is what Apple originally planned to do, but maybe they couldn't get iOS 13 to run as smoothly on it as they would have wanted.

With that in mind, I think it's unlikely that any future iPhone gets less than 6 years of support from when the year it was first released. So even in the least optimistic scenario, I could see the iPhone 7 getting 6 years of support (if they drop it at the same time as the 6S) and the iPhones 8 and X getting 7 years, both being supported up to and including iOS 17.

I think it's more likely that all three of them get 7 years. And although I wouldn't consider an 8th year likely, I wouldn't rule it out either.

Thank you for this in-depth write-up!

 

[TrickyTreeRed]

I do not think the iPhones 6s, 6s Plus, 2016 SE, 7 and 7 Plus will receive iOS 16 as they're not running on the 'Bionic' series of chipsets that were released with the iPhone 8 A11.

The 'Bionic' series has six cores compared with the iPhone 7 series' four cores (A10 Fusion chipset). That said, the A9 chipset of the 6s, 6s Plus and 2016 only had two cores.

 

[mebehere]

2007 (original) - 3 years support
2008 (3G) - 3 years support
2009 (3GS) - 4 years support
2010 (4) - 4 years support
2011 (4S) - 5 years support
2012 (5) - 5 years support
2013 (5S) - 6 years support
2014 (6) - 5 years support
2015 (6S) - 7 years support

Judging by past precedent, every iPhone got the same or more support than the one before it, with the exception of the iPhone 6. (Not counting the 5C, because I consider that a continuation of the 5. Likewise the SE is a continuation of the 6S.) The iPhone 6 would fit this pattern better if it had a sixth year, which I'm guessing is what Apple originally planned to do, but maybe they couldn't get iOS 13 to run as smoothly on it as they would have wanted.

With that in mind, I think it's unlikely that any future iPhone gets less than 6 years of support from when the year it was first released. So even in the least optimistic scenario, I could see the iPhone 7 getting 6 years of support (if they drop it at the same time as the 6S) and the iPhones 8 and X getting 7 years, both being supported up to and including iOS 17.

I think it's more likely that all three of them get 7 years. And although I wouldn't consider an 8th year likely, I wouldn't rule it out either.

Excellent post, both in terms of history and logic going forward.

 

[Homme]

Ok I doubt that A10 and above (don’t forget 7+ and 7th Gen iPad have 3GB of RAM) will be dropped off anytime soon. They are still solid. But don’t forget with A11 Bionic all cores are operated simultaneously, though IMO A10X iPad Pros in longevity will probably be around the same level as A11 Bionic

also with 7th Gen iPod Touch there is a likelihood with it dropping support before the rest of the A10 lineup due to its high performance processor speed of 1.64 GHz and weak battery

A8, A8X, A9 and possibly A9X devices will go before the A10/A11 series devices..

i doubt A9X will go. Don’t forget that processor gives better single and multicore performance than the A10 of iPod Touch 7 and also with the 12.9 inch model it has 4GB of RAM compared with 2GB on the iPod Touch/iPhone 7/iPad 6

and also A8X nowadays managed to reach far with iPadOS 15 against the 6s,6s+, SE 2016 and 5th Gen iPad because of their A9, I see the same with A9X vs A10, A10X vs A11 ( and possibly A12 with 3GB of RAM) A12X verse A13/A14 for longevity and so on

 

[ian87w]

It's amazing that Apple still supports the 6s for at least another year. Then again, there's really no reason not to as the A9 + 2GB RAM is perfectly capable (minus the tiny battery).

If bionic is becoming the minimum requirement, then I can see the 6s and 7 being dropped next. The A10 is quad core, but it can only use either the big or little cores at a time, not combinations of them like the bionic chips. I do hope my 7+ gets a bit more lives in it.