Support for discontinued Apple products

I went into my local Apple shop today, to get the battery replaced in my iPhone 6s. The staff I talked to told me that at £69, and because this model will no longer be supported or receive updates, it does not make sense to spend the money. Now I know shops will always try to upsell, I wasn't born yesterday, but what does this mean for the future of my phone. Will it just stop working, become glitchy, temperamental, or what? Our household has 2 of these and a 7, all of which are now potentially in need of replacement, at no insignificant cost. I am told that all 6s,7s, and 8s are now no longer supported. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 6s, iOS 15

Posted on May 26, 2023 1:02 PM

Top-ranking reply

Tesserax

Level 10

152,864 points

Posted on May 26, 2023 2:22 PM

In addition to the other comments, you may want to know that Apple had established three levels of support service for their products, including the iPhone.

They are:

Supported - Up to 5 years after the end of production. Full support for both software updates & hardware repairs.
Vintage - Between 5-7 years after the end of production. When an Apple device becomes “Vintage” it will no longer receive routine software updates and isn’t guaranteed by Apple to be repairable at an Apple store or authorized service provider.
Obsolete - 7+ years after the end of production. Obsolete products lose all support—no more repairs, system updates or security patches.

As a reference:

iPhone 6s came out in Sept. 2015, and were discontinued in Sept. 2018 (Vintage)
The iPhone 7 came out in Sept. 2016, and were discontinued in Sept. 2019 (Supported)
The iPhone 8 came out in Sept 2017, and were discontinued in Apr. 2020 (Supported)

Ref:

Obtaining service for your Apple product after an expired warranty - Apple Support
Getting a service for your Apple product after its warranty has expired - Apple Support

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Support for discontinued Apple products

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