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> Many phones only get software updates for a small number of years, often three years or less.

True on Android. iPhone lifespan is longer at 5+ years.

For instance IOS 16 will not support handsets older than 2017, but IOS 15 will continue with security updates for some time after that (presumably 2-3 years). So somewhere around 8 years total device lifespan in terms of security support.

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True.

Although I do wonder how thorough those late iOS updates really are. IIRC, Android updates various system technologies through the play store, so e.g. Chrome and web views will stay updated far longer than the rest of the OS, whereas iOS updates just stop when they stop.

Still, as far as longevity is concerned, iOS is still miles ahead of Android.

I believe they are just backported critical security updates. Although iOS 13 also got the COVID-tracker backported (which required the new GUI and possibly more sophisticated anonymizing code).

IIRC, iOS 13 (the last iOS on the last generation to age out) still gets critical security updates.

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