Android smartphones are notoriously short-lived. Recently, I found my old Nexus 6 in an old storage box. The hardware still works perfectly, but this phone was abandoned by Google 18 months since its initial release. Samsung’s phones are no better. In fact, there are no manufacturers who support their Android devices for more than a couple of years. Why is it so?

Well, because they can, that’s why. Consumers were busy updating their phones every year of two, why would a phone or a chipset manufacturer support them for a longer time? The smartphone market was hot, but it cooled down quite a bit recently and now consumers want their phones to last much longer.

Most Android smartphones are powered by Qualcomm chips, and now Qualcomm is promising to provide all the necessary updates for at least four years. That’s a good start, but it’s still not enough. There needs to be more pressure from the consumers when it comes to device longevity and repairability.