I'm certainly not rich. I've yet to earn a salary in any given year that was above the median in my country. I've had to start from nothing and claw my way to where I am today. What I did however see, was that technology was going to dominate life in the future so I invested the money I did have in good quality Apple products, starting with second hand products until I could afford to buy brand new. But you know, feel free to carry on making assumptions about the internet strangers you chat with.
> No matter how amazingly technologically savvy you are, if your smart TV is more than just three years old, it's already running a deprecated browser that in all likelihood never be updated. And nearly all apps on modern smart TVs run in the browser, so yes, companies will have to support that (if their apps run on those TVs. Think Netflix, Spotify, even probably Apple's integration with Samsung).
Not really. Said companies could just refuse to support them and only develop for Apple TV, Firestick and Chromecast. Which would make a lot more sense than spreading yourself thin and wasting resources on each crappy built-in browser made by every TV company. Every time Smart TVs come up on HN the general consensus is don't connect it to the internet, don't update the firmware and use a proper external device for Smart TV functionality. Because TV companies suck at software the same way car companies do.
> As for governments, you assume that it's only "people on benefits" that use outdated or deprecated technology.
No, but you implied that the reason why people couldn't access them was monetary. If people aren't on benefits, then presumably they have enough money to purchase a second hand iPhone or Android that can run chrome for less than £100.
> And you assume that governments will run through acquiring and updating millions of iPads once every few years. Because iPads and browsers on those iPads also get deprecated (a 7 year old iPad Pro while fully functional is no longer supported).
Yes, if it is economically cheaper to do. What do you think happens to the existing computers owned by the government? Are they just never updated or replaced? Are they all still running Windows XP?
The basic truth is that it is simply uneconomical to support everything.