What would make you think that 4.5 years of service of an electronic device is unnecessary? I have multiple devices that old or older and I hope very much that they will last way longer.

My iPad Mini came out at the same time, but iOS 10 doesn't support it. I don't expect infinite support, but that felt like a pretty small window to me. I've gifted it and another to my younger relatives who are happy to play games on iOS 9.

Isn't the more relevant date when they ceased sale of the iPhone 4S, which was September 2014 (2½ years ago)?

Importantly, the phone was sold until September 10, 2013. So someone buying on September 9, 2013 had about 3.5 years of support, which is still great, but notably shorter.

The iPhone 4S was an extreme case of this, where it was introduced in 2011, but was sold in India until 2016. Meaning it has some of the shortest or longest iOS support depending on when and where you bought it (0-5 years!)

Posting this from an otherwise finen, iOS 9 only, iPad 3.

> Unnecessary but great

5-10 years personally is what I think the minimum should be for security-related bugs.

Fact is, I'm probably never going to hold off on a phone for more than a year (I still have a 6S+), but I always hand-down my old phones. I can't use a 5-year old phone, but, others can and should still be able to do so safely.

4.5 years out of an iPad though, is completely doable. I've given up on my iPad 2 because it's too slow now, but other than that it's absolutely fine.

I plan to never switch away from my iPhone 5S unless it breaks for some reason. It's a phone, why would I need anything new on my phone? I consider it pretty much perfect and it only gets better because now the value is so little, I dont have to be so scared anymore that it will be stolen.

Literally any device - including all non apple devices.

Why?