Apple guarantees a minimum of 5 years of security updates for iPhones, in accordance with UK legislation
- The iPhone 15 will receive at least 5 years of security updates
- Details published by Apple in compliance with the UK’s Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act
- Apple has previously supported iPhones for longer than 5 years
- Future iPhone models, including the upcoming iPhone 16, will likely be guaranteed a minimum of 5 years of security updates too
A recently discovered filing by Apple has revealed that the iPhone 15 will receive a minimum 5 years of security updates.
Apple are acting in accordance with the UK’s Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act, which went live on 29 April 2024. The act states that manufacturers of connected devices must comply with basic security requirements. This includes a “defined support period”, which discloses the minimum length for which security updates will be provided for newly released devices.
However, manufacturers can choose to provide additional years of security updates after the defined support period. In the case of Apple, the company has previously gone above and beyond to provide security updates to even older iPhones. Just last year, Apple issued a security update for the 10 year old iPhone 5S, which fixed an exploit in which web pages could execute arbitrary code. Therefore, it's likely Apple will support the iPhone 15 for security updates beyond the promised 5 year period.
Within the past year, Google and Samsung both announced that their flagship phones will receive a minimum of 7 years of security and OS updates. Non-flagship Samsung Galaxy phones sold from 2019 onwards will receive at least 4 years of security updates.
Although not explicitly stated, it's likely future iPhone models, including the iPhone 16 and the next iPhone SE, will also be filed with the same specification of at least 5 years of security updates.