If you could put a "deadline" on a cell phone, the manufacturer would say: "Three years!"

If a time limit is set for the happy life between consumers and a mobile phone, how long would it be? Now, Android manufacturers have begun to pay more and more attention to this issue and have made a "three-year" commitment, which has even become one of the product selling points.

Samsung and Sony have successively said "three years!"

In early August, Samsung not only released the annual flagship Galaxy Note 20 series at Galaxy Unpacked, but also announced that it would provide three major versions of Android updates for all models released since the Galaxy S10. In other words, Samsung's mobile phone system updates will be increased to three years.

This includes the flagship Galaxy S and Note series, the Flip and Fold models of the folding Z series, and even the mid-range A series, as well as Samsung's tablet products, the Galaxy Tab series. In other words, Samsung has basically guaranteed system upgrades for its entire product line, allowing users to continue to receive upgrade guarantees after purchase.

Subsequently, there have been recent reports that Sony is also planning to provide three years of major Android version updates for its flagship products released in 2020. That is to say, the Sony Xperia 1 II released at the beginning of this year and the upcoming Xperia 5 II will not only be pre-installed with the latest Android 10, but will also be able to be updated to Android 13 in the future.

In fact, this is not the first time that Android phone manufacturers have used "three years" of system updates as a selling point to attract consumers. "Three years" has always been one of Google's selling points for Pixel phones, and because they are its own phones, this series of models can always get major version updates at the first time. Even Google has made the same commitment to provide continuous Chrome OS system updates for its tablet products and Chromebook notebook products.

Android upgrade problems are more obvious than iOS

The three-year commitment made by Android phone manufacturers just reflects a major pain point of Android phones, which is that system version updates are very untimely, and even a large number of users will miss out on system updates.

Take the statistics in April as an example. At that time, the latest version was Android 10, but the market share of this version was less than 10%. In May last year, the share of Android 9 had reached 10.4%, which means that the growth momentum of the version share of Android models came more from the sales of new phones, which is not a good thing for consumers. At present, Android 9 has the highest share, up to 31.3%, followed by Android 8 at 21.3%. Even Android 7 and Android 6 have a share of more than 10%, at 12.9% and 11.2% respectively.

Basically the same as in the past, when Google pushed the official version of Android 11 this week, the first models to receive the update were only a number of Google's own Pixel phones.

On the other hand, in October 2019, after the release of iOS 13, the proportion of this version reached 55%, iOS 12 dropped to 38%, and the early version accounted for only 7%. Obviously, Apple iPhone users have received system upgrade benefits that are many times stronger than Android users. Through upgrades, users can also get new features and even have more freshness in long-term use. It is no wonder that mocking the slow update of Android mobile phone versions is often a fixed part of Apple's press conferences.

In addition, although Android manufacturers have begun to pay attention to the system updates of mobile phones, it is often impossible to enable users' mobile phones to get version updates in the first place. From the timely updates of various manufacturers after the release of Android 10, it can be seen that only Essential and Redmi updated their next models in time, and OnePlus brought updates to OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro 18 days later. Xiaomi brought an upgrade to Xiaomi 9 after 63 days, and Samsung released an upgrade push for the S10 series after 86 days. Whether it is waiting for 2 months or three months, these are still lucky models. Many Android models are likely to miss the new major version updates from beginning to end. Obviously, as an Android user, you should have a normal mind on version updates and not be in a hurry at all.

The replacement cycle is getting longer, and users need "three years"

When mobile phone manufacturers start to care about major version upgrades of users' mobile phones, it also means that the life of a mobile phone is getting longer.

Generally speaking, the replacement cycle of Apple mobile phone users is longer than that of Android users. According to statistics, 28% of American users have been using old iPhones for more than three years. And its firmware is often guaranteed to be upgradeable for many years. For example, the iPhone 5s released in September 2013 was pre-installed with iOS7. Apple's official website has provided it with iOS12, a full five years and five major versions. Until 2020, although it has missed iOS13, Apple is still pushing small version system updates for this model. On the other hand, if Android users want to use a mobile phone for 5 years, it is difficult to get 5 years of official major version upgrades.

According to the survey on the replacement cycle of all mobile phone users, according to the survey data at the end of 2019, nearly 30% of users have a replacement cycle of more than 18 months, and nearly 25% of users have a replacement cycle of 2-3 years, and nearly 25% of users have a replacement cycle of more than three years. These three groups of people together account for 80% of all consumers.

On the contrary, the recent promise of three-year major version updates given by Samsung and Sony to users has undoubtedly satisfied the mobile phone usage habits of the vast majority of consumers. Moreover, the global user replacement cycle has been showing a trend of extending year by year in recent years, making users feel more secure and assured in future use when purchasing a mobile phone.

In addition, if users can use a brand's ecosystem for a long time, they are more likely to become sticky and can also create various service consumption values ​​during use. The information retained in the brand ecosystem and the usage habits formed over the years will make users have higher brand loyalty, and they will choose the previous brand when they change their phone next time.

For manufacturers, a three-year commitment is undoubtedly a good thing. And with the oversupply of hardware, if the innovation of mobile phones is still insufficient, this commitment period may be even longer.