So many resources could be saved...
Todays electronics is fast. Imagine how much natural resources could be saved if manufacturers delivered software support until device is truly unusable due to hardware limitations.
This post is being written on 3 years old flagship killer that has never dropped any frame, reached 0% battery or crashed but wont get system updates anymore because...
seemingly 3 years old 7nm flagship SoC is too weak to be used for next decade?
🇪🇺🙏
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Part of the problem is the chip manufacturers. They provide precompiled device drivers for one version of one kernel only, no source, and refuse to update them ever again. It can be a bit difficult to update the rest of the software stack when there's no way to shore up the foundations. Device manufacturers need to start insisting on updated drivers and/or provided driver source code before they buy the chips to put in their phones, tablets, and other systems.
Good luck on that.
A lot of it is still on the phone manufacturers. If Fairphone can provide software support for their 2015 model 8 years later, then I have a hard time believing that a company with a 32 billion USD net income cannot provide more than 3 years of software updates. Looking at you, Samsung!
https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/11351328932497-Update-to-the-latest-Fairphone-OS
Oh, there's undoubtedly plenty of blame to go around. Samsung is one of the few manufacturers large enough that they might be able to apply some pressure to Qualcomm and its ilk, and they aren't doing it, or at least aren't doing it enough.
Fairphone also deliberately chose an industrial variant of the Snapdragon 778G just so they could get by the issue mentioned by nyan.
Samsung also manufactures their own memory and chipset. They could provide long support for those chipset if they wanted to, but that would means giving up short term profit. When smartphone sales truly stagnates and people no longer buy a new phone after 2-3 years anymore, manufacturers may consider this strategy to differentiate from their competitors.