That said, since five years is the lower limit, there’s no stopping Apple from supporting its phone for as long as the best Samsung and Google phones. According to the PSTI, the “defined support period” is the “minimum length of time, expressed as a period of time with an end date, for which security updates will be provided.”
Apple generally supports its phones for five to six years though and if it intends to stick with this practice, Google and Samsung already have it beat as far as support policy is concerned.
Whether most consumers will want to keep a phone for seven years is a discussion for another day, but at the time of purchase, most people appreciate having the best of everything.