The thing is that they’ve clearly promised 7 years now, walking back on the promise would cause them massive issues with consumer protection agencies everywhere they sell - they might be toothless in the US, but Google also sells Pixels in Japan and the EU.
7 years of security updates is a promise that my phone won’t regress from where it was when I bought it - I typically buy a mid-ish range phone (currently running a Pixel 7a) when they are brand new, and run it for ~3 years before I start to want an upgrade. Lack of security updates usually forces the issue, so a phone with 7 years of security updates guarantees that I’ll want to upgrade before I’m forced to, and will be able to pass the phone along to a relative. Where I am, a claim like “we will provide security support until X” is backed up by consumer law, so I’d be entitled to a full refund if they fail to meet that guarantee.
Buying a phone because the manufacturer promises “feature drops” or because you expect that a future version of the OS will have some amazing features you want is like buying a preorder game - you are a fool for trusting marketing without concrete details
Paraphrasing MKBHD: Buy the phone for what it has today, not what it might have tomorrow.
I’d believe the promise of 7 years of updates from any other company but definitely not Google. In the words of Logan Roy
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The thing is that they’ve clearly promised 7 years now, walking back on the promise would cause them massive issues with consumer protection agencies everywhere they sell - they might be toothless in the US, but Google also sells Pixels in Japan and the EU.
For me, this kinda breaks both ways: