HOW LONG DO you expect your iPhone to last before it needs replacing? It turns out Apple only expects your iPhone to last three years.

The company announced the timeframe as part of its new environmental Q&A page, which details the methods it uses to help improve its efforts and use materials as efficiently as possible.

Under a section detailing how it assesses devices, the company revealed the average expected lifespan is three years for “first owners” of the iPhone and Apple Watch. For any Mac products and Apple TV devices, this is increased to four years.

Apple says this is determined by measuring the power used by a device while mirroring daily usage patterns. Said patterns, which are different to each product, are based on “a mixture of actual and modelled customer use data,” according to Apple.

The news gives fuel to those who have accused Apple of deliberately slowing down older iPhone models with later updates as a way to convince people to upgrade.

While each new version of iOS is designed to work with the latest iPhone, it also means that older iPhones are trying to run new software on older hardware. Updates are released not to provide new features but to ensure all devices are protected against security flaws and threats.

Originally, each new update of iOS was designed to support all iPhones released in the last three years, but this was increased to four when iOS 9 supported the iPhone 4s, which was released in 2011.

Read: If you still have Apple Quicktime on your PC, you need to uninstall it asap >

Read: This site is trying to avoid the mistakes made by its maker’s last racist bot >

Making a difference

A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can make sure we can keep reliable, meaningful news open to everyone regardless of their ability to pay.

Support us Learn More