The issue here is software, not hardware. An old Android device would be perfectly capable of running the updated root store if the manufacturers bothered to update it. IE6 also could be switched from, at least theoretically.
> If 6% of Android users globally are on an ancient OS version, how many man-hours would it be sensible for my to spend testing that our systems work for them? How many of those 6% are likely to be paying customers for us?
From a purely financial point of view, I agree. But it stills sucks for the 6% and indirectly this is one of the reasons for electronic waste.
In a way there is a long tail of consumers with smaller incomes and living in countries with weak currencies that benefit from computer hardware and software and services that are developed targeting wealthier consumers but still have to deal with the fact they aren't really the target market.
Isn't the EU advocating (or legislating) longer life spans for consumer electronics?
If so, I hope they're covering both hardware and software and configs.
That certs eventually expire is obvious to me now that someone raised the issue. But I wouldn't have foreseen the problem on my own. So I imagine policy makers will need to be informed too.
> Isn't the EU advocating (or legislating) longer life spans for consumer electronics?
Yes, there is legislation for this that mandates a number of OS updates and security updates. I'm hoping Android manufacturers will stop shovelling new SKUs and concentrate on a few they can actually keep up to date.
> If 6% of Android users globally are on an ancient OS version, how many man-hours would it be sensible for my to spend testing that our systems work for them? How many of those 6% are likely to be paying customers for us?
From a purely financial point of view, I agree. But it stills sucks for the 6% and indirectly this is one of the reasons for electronic waste.
In a way there is a long tail of consumers with smaller incomes and living in countries with weak currencies that benefit from computer hardware and software and services that are developed targeting wealthier consumers but still have to deal with the fact they aren't really the target market.