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Comment by scarface_74 | Hacker News Reader

> But basically I think phones have now reached a place like laptops and desktops where HW capabilities are stable, and there's no good reason for devices to be obsolete in 5 years any more.

Unless you care about your phone working as a phone. 2G was discontinued years ago, 3G is rapidly being dropped by the carriers and how much longer before 4G is discontinued?

> streamlining the Android update process? (To Google's credit they have already done a _lot_ of positive work in that area as I understand it).

What exactly is Google doing? Apple released a security update for the 2013 iPhone 5s earlier this year.

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It's pretty well explained here what Google is trying to do: https://www.xda-developers.com/android-project-mainline-modu...

That being said, Apple is atm way better in providing longterm software updates, but that doesn't mean Google isnt doing a lot of work there also.

Next to that, there is already a lot of apps that are updated through the Play Store instead of an OS update. Mail, Dialer, Android Auto, Photos, Camera, Keyboard, Contacts, Clock, Play services, ...

They’ve been “trying to” do the same thing since 2014.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_One

And none of those apps help when there are security vulnerabilities at lower levels.

> Unless you care about your phone working as a phone

Most of that is a chicken-and-egg problem. 3G was dropped because very few phones were still using it, and you could not run 3G on the same frequency as 4G/5G. If phones lasted longer, more people would've remained on 3G, so they would not have dropped it. Furthermore, 4G and 5G can share the same equipment and frequency due to Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, so there is no technical reason to quickly get rid of 4G like we wanted with 2G & 3G.

3G was dropped because the same frequency could better used for 4G. Unless you somehow found a way to get around the laws of physics.

Not here in the US. The carriers wanted to discontinue 3G for years. They really only started it in earnest in 2018. It took them about 3 years longer from the first dates given to finally kill 3G. It sound to me as if 3G phones didn't bite the dust as fast as carriers assumed or customers refused to upgrade at the rate they expected.

Even in your example you point out that 3G "is being rapidly dropped" but it's not dead yet. The iPhone 3G came out in 2008. So just today, 15 years later, it would still work on most networks (certainly I can still use 3G in Australia).

Then there's still wifi of course. Admittedly, a phone without cellular connections is less useful, but it could still be used to function like a tablet that's simply kept at home etc.

> Unless you care about your phone working as a phone. 2G was discontinued years ago, 3G is rapidly being dropped by the carriers and how much longer before 4G is discontinued?

First 4g devices were released in 2012, in 2014 you could find sub 150€ 4G devices. If you bought the last 3G phone in 2015~ (there were still 3G phones after that, but nothing reasonable), 10 years of network support is still reasonably within reach.

That's the situation in the US. In most of the EU, you can expect either 2G or 3G to be available for at least five more years.

Nope. 3G is being shut down in Finland as we speak. Should be finished by early 2024.

3G is alive and well in IoT.

All of the US carriers are shutting down 3G.

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/the-3g-shutdown-how-will-it-aff....

What I implied was it might not be a big thing for smartphones, but there are a lot of IoT devices out there that will fail the 3G sunset.

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