I don't defend any mothership to the death, no matter what, because I only care to correctly understand how long Apple's support truly is from facts.
Apple's FULL security-update behavior for *full* iOS support
a. Longest full iOS support: 6.99 years (iPhone XS / XS Max)
b. Shortest full iOS support: 2.37 years (iPhone 3G)
c. Average full iOS support: 5.10 years
d. Typical full iOS support: ~4-6 years depending on model
Even if we take the *best possible scenario* for the length of Apple iOS operating system support, it's still dismally short compared to Windows.
Newsgroups: misc.phone.mobile.iphone,comp.sys.mac.system,comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: How long after release does Apple still provide "security updates"?
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2026 15:13:00 -0400
Message-ID: <10q6krt$jv7$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>
Microsoft Windows is the king of support in terms of overall time duration: 1. Windows XP was released on October 25, 2001
2. The last known security update was released on May 14, 2019
3. That is 6,421 days, or 17.59 years of security updates after release
Apple's real security-update behavior for *any* security patch:
a. iOS average: 1.6 years
b. macOS average: 2.8 years
Note "security update" is the longest possible given it's not full support.
This is why Apple's UK "5-year security update" claim may be legally compliant
but practically almost meaningless since "security update" is not "full update". .
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