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Comment by t-writescode | Hacker News Reader

The defining reason for my original switch back to iOS from Android was lack of confirmation that a security update would be released to my phone.

It absolutely impacts the reasoning for some iPhone and Android users.

edit: added words to the last sentence

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I think it's a very tiny number of user though. Most users don't care about a security update and many actively avoid them. A phone updating all the time is seen by many to be a bug, not a feature. If my car was constantly nagging me to take it into the shop to be optimized, I'd be pretty annoyed. If it was taking itself to the shop and coming back telling me I now needed to update my seat belts in order to work with it's newest updates I'd be further annoyed.

I switched from iPhone to Android because I end up breaking my phones after about two years and I can't be paying more per annum for a phone than for a car. I need an email client, web client, maps and sometimes a camera for taking a reference photo. It's astounding to me that the cost of meeting those needs seems to be increasing over time instead of decreasing.

We've seen over time how Apple uses software updates to aggressively force new hardware purchases. The latest OS doesn't support version X of the software, and more often than not your device doesn't support OS version Z so open up thy wallet and get the latest hardware. This is precisely the reason people are terrified of updating their software. It goes from working to not working. This impacts my reasoning for NOT buying Apple hardware.

EDIT: You know what, I change my mind. This gains some respect from me for Apple. I hate phones in general and I'm just grumpy.

I don’t think your car comparison is a fair one. You don’t see your iPhone nag you to take it to an “Apple shop.” They usually update while you sleep.

My Tesla does the same thing, it’s a car that literally gets software updates while I sleep. And it’s AMAZING. I get new features (sometimes a new alarm system, one time a dash cam system, another time Spotify and once it made the car actually faster) for free! There’s no taking it to the shop or nagging or anything. This is an amazing feature.

On the android side you literally have phones that don’t get critical security patches - that’s the scariest type of “it doesn’t work anymore so you need to go buy new hardware” because you don’t even know you’re at risk.

Android devices not getting OS updates after two years, especially $800 android phones, is obscene. There’s no way to defend that.

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