Apple iOS 16 upgrade will abandon iPhone 6s/Plus, iPhone SE first generation

According to 9to5 Mac, with the official release of iOS 15.2, the new year is coming, and Apple will begin to focus internally on the next major version, iOS 16. According to iPhonesoft, citing insiders, Apple iOS 16 plans to abandon support for iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone SE first generation. This means that iPhone SE 2, iPhone 7 and above iPhones will get iOS 16 upgrades.

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On the iPad side, it is said that iPadOS 16 is no longer compatible with iPad mini 4, iPad Air 2, iPad (fifth generation), and iPad Pro models from 2015. This means that iPad models newer than these can get the iPadOS 16 upgrade.

Of course, this is not official news yet. Apple will announce iOS 16 at WWDC 2022, and will also announce the specific upgrade support list at that time. In terms of accuracy, iPhonesoft previously correctly reported the device support model list for iOS 13 and iOS 14 in advance. iPhonesoft claimed last year that the iPhone 6s and the original iPhone SE would not be able to update to iOS 15, but this was incorrect. Apple eventually allowed iOS 15 to continue to support all the same device models as iOS 14.

Assuming that iPhonesoft's report today is correct, this would mean that iOS 16 will require an A10 chip as the minimum hardware specification to get the latest features. It was previously reported that iOS 16 will be a major feature update.

Still, this represents an incredibly long lifespan for Apple’s phones in terms of upgrades and maintenance. The iPhone 6s and iPhone SE were first released in late 2015 and early 2016, respectively, which means they’ll get regular software updates for more than six years. iPad mini 4 devices will also be removed from the software update roadmap, even though that product will be more than five years old when iPadOS 16 is released.

Apple is also said to have plans to continue supporting critical security patches for current and previous major versions of iOS, further extending the life of older models. For example, now customers can choose to stick with iOS 14 instead of updating to iOS 15. Assuming Apple sticks to its promise, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE users will continue to receive iOS 15 security updates for several years after the official release of iOS 16 in the fall of 2022.