Apple reveals how long your phone will last and it’s not great news

Remember when things were built to last? It seems like those days are well and truly behind us. The Apple iPhone is a classic case of the concept called ‘planned obsolescence’, which essentially means they aren’t made to last forever, with the aim that you’ll buy more.

And Apple has just admitted this. The tech giant has confirmed overnight that the iPhone is intended to be used for three years by an owner. According to the New Daily, this interesting revelation was buried in the tech company’s latest environmental policy published on April 15.

“Years of use, which are based on first owners, are assumed to be four years for OS X and tvOS devices and three years for iOS and watchOS devices,” Apple said in the online statement.

This means Apple predicts iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and Mac computers will be retained and used for around three years, not their physical lifespan.

But an Australian expert says that iPhones become unusable far quicker. Simon Smith, is an iPhone software developer, and said the software degrades sooner than in three years, and says the company deliberately uses software updates to make older models less usable.

“It’s a trick. It’s certainly fair to say that the life expectancy of a phone is three years, in a way. It would probably hold up in a court of life if something went out of warranty. Three years is pretty big. But the trick is, that’s not what really happens from a software perspective,” Mr Smith told The New Daily.

“Yes you can have a phone, but you’re not going to get the most advantage of it as technology grows because the phone is only as good as the hardware and the software they allow you to use. And sometimes you can actually get more out of the phone with the software, but they don’t let you”.

This isn’t the first time Apple has been accused of not building their products to last. It’s very common to hear about or see a person with a cracked iPhone screen, despite many other non-Apple phones having upgrades their screens to unbreakable material.

Apple is renowned for forcing system updates on their users however despite Apple saying an update is compatible with older phones, it isn’t, and can completely bugger up a perfectly good phone. This in turn makes the user go and buy a brand new iPhone, and the cycle goes on.

So if you have an iPhone or iPad, arm yourself with the best protective cases available and try not to update your software too regularly if you have a phone older than two years.

Tell us, does this surprise you that your phone isn’t built to last?