It's all about tradeoffs, Android phones getting updates usually means the phone gets faster as opposed to ever closer to unusably slow.
At any rate, the big issue I tend to hear about Android phones getting updates is "my Android phone isn't getting updates." My iPhone 6 shipped in 2014, and iOS 12 actually ran on 2013's iPhone 5s. How many Android phones that shipped before 2016 are getting Android P? Are there Android phones that shipped in 2016 that aren't?
It's not universally true. It's mostly true, with a couple of outliers (namely iOS 9 and iOS 11). Most of time, major iOS upgrades slow down older hardware.
I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with this, if not for the fact that iOS downgrades are literally impossible (outside a small window of time). Install an update and discover your phone is too slow? Either learn to live with it or buy a new phone.
Or you could just restore from a backup, possible at any time.
https://medium.com/metodixtech/ios-how-to-downgrade-and-save...
> You can downgrade (If you don’t have Shsh blobs saved) only until Apple is still signing the old software.
Saving SHSH blobs needs to be done in advance, while the iOS version you want to install is still being signed by Apple. With blobs, you used to be able to use a replay attack to force a restore. This doesn't work anymore due to the addition of NONCE, except in very limited and not particularly useful circumstances (you can move to an unsigned iOS version IF you're already Jailbroken AND if SEP is compatible).
If you know a way around this system, please do share. The Jailbreak community will love you for it. :)
Apple does everything in their power to make downgrading iOS impossible outside of a narrow window. I suspect this is also why we haven't seen any actual, definitive speed tests between different iOS versions. The discussion always devolves into "this feels slower" or "I remember my phone used to be like this," because no one can actually install an older version to test with.
As to your original point, though -- yes. I'd certainly prefer it if Apple didn't make downgrading so difficult, even if it's just on general principle. I've rarely been tempted to downgrade, but iOS 11 could be pretty clunky on my iPhone 6 compared to its predecessor. (I think 11.4 finally smoothed all that out, but that came out literally a week before iOS 12 was announced!)
Yes, it is, just not this time because of all the backlash Apple has received over the past few years over this issue. Let's see how iOS13 and 14 do, but my guess is they will be slower still.
So please don't imply iOS updates brings iDevices "ever closer to unusably slow" because that's very non-factual.
Except those who Apple was "helping" "preserve battery life" by purposefully slowing the clock speeds on updates without telling them? I've often wondered how many people went out and actually purchased an entirely new phone due to this unannounced "help" vs slapping a (relatively cheap) new battery in it?
What Apple did is to prefer to have people's devices run slower compared to breaking them.
What they did wrong was keeping quiet about it. I ain't ever disputing that, it was a really bad decision to hide it.
The reasoning to do it however has solid foundations in physical reality. Even I that I know nothing of electronics went out of my way to read about it and asked several electronical engineer acquaintances of mine and they all said Apple did the right thing by slowing down the devices.
> So please don't imply iOS updates brings iDevices "ever closer to unusably slow" because that's very non-factual.
Because THAT was non-factual. They have done it, and for some it was "unusably slow." Whether the reasons were electrically sound wasn't in dispute.
IMO the original statement implied some ill will from Apple -- a myth that has been debunked pretty quickly. That's what I was arguing against.
Say what you want about Apple pricing and some bad decisions along the way, but their approach to security, hardware build quality and overall experience of using their device over longer periods of time is very good and certainly beats Android devices.
I wish there were good alternatives with open platform but there are none currently and I don't think there will be any in the next few years.
P.S. I switched to iPhone about a year ago and I don't really miss Android.
You say this like it is unique to android, iOS 12 was basically the same. And I can say from friends experiences, its not always true for all android phones.