Until now, Apple has never made any sort of promises as to how long it would support its phones for, but thanks to the UK’s Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) regulation it has now had to for the first time.
As spotted by Android Authority, Apple has published its compliance statement for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which reveals that the phone’s “defined support period” is a “minimum five years from the first supply date.”
That “first supply date” is when the iPhone 15 line launched, on September 22, 2023, so in other words the iPhone 15 Pro Max will get software updates until at least September 22, 2028.
However, these updates don’t have to be new iOS versions, rather the “defined support period” refers just to security updates, so it’s possible that the phone will get less than five years of iOS version updates.
In practice, we doubt that will be the case, and this revelation isn’t surprising, since Apple typically delivers five years of iOS updates to its phones, and occasionally as many as six years, with security updates arriving for at least as long.
And while this document is only talking about the iPhone 15 Pro Max, we’d expect the rest of the iPhone 15 series will be updated for just as long.
Also note that Apple said that five years was the minimum support the phone would get, so it might get updated for longer – though as noted, in terms of iOS version updates five years is fairly standard for iPhones, so we wouldn’t count on that.
Beaten by Samsung and Google
That’s a reasonable duration in any case, and until recently would have had any Android phone beat, but these days Samsung and Google both promise more with some of their handsets.
Both the Samsung Galaxy S24 series and the Google Pixel 8 line for example will get seven years of both Android version updates and security patches.
So it’s a shame Apple didn’t take this opportunity to match or beat what Samsung and Google are now promising, but five years of support is still more than what a lot of other Android brands are offering. And you never know, maybe Apple will save any extended support announcements for the iPhone 16, which is probably now only a few months away.
