On the longer OS updates introduced with the Pixel 6, this article of course frames them as being part of benevolent and innovative Google’s plan to provide the best product possible for consumers (ignoring, as usual, that Fairphone did this first for real ethical reasons) but I’m not convinced this is the whole story. Smartphone sales were dropping significantly during that period due to the financial climate while AI technology was becoming an increasingly important part of Google’s business. My theory is that Google and Samsung saw the writing on the wall and decided to pivot away from handset sales and towards subscription-based revenue from their new AI tools and an expanded suite of paid proprietary services. The AI tools were introduced as free tools to get consumers hooked, but will all require subscriptions eventually. The idea here is to lock consumers into the ecosystem through a combination of longer software support and “essential” tools and services which they pay an ongoing fee for. This is also why the aesthetic design of phones has slowed so much in recent years - Google and Samsung don’t want their consumers to feel like their phone is “old” and go shopping for a new one because that runs the risk of the consumer leaving their ecosystem. They want to keep them happy and loyal to the brand (while still giving them money) so that when the eventually do look for another phone it will be another Pixel or Galaxy.