Bad news for anyone who still owns one of Apple's popular iPhones after it's declared 'obsolete'
One of the big challenges of the modern world of tech is that your devices only last for so long.
This might mean that they simply slow down and become unusable over time, but in many cases it's more complicated, with the companies that made them only promising to support them for a certain number of years.
That's how Apple operates for its many MacBooks, iPads and iPhones - you get a decade of official repairs if you need them (although most of these might cost you a pretty penny), but after that point, Apple adds the device to its 'Obsolete' list and stops supporting it officially.
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This is the threshold recently crossed by one hugely popular iPhone model - the iPhone 5S. First released in late 2013, it was a fairly superb phone with some lovely features and a nice compact design.
In fact, it was so popular that it was even used by moviemaker Sean Baker (who just won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival) to film an entire movie, Tangerine.
So, the iPhone 5S was obviously a really great bit of tech, but it's now passed over that 10-year mark to join a whole heap of other iPhones on the obsolete pile.
If you're curious about the full list, it's here:
- iPhone
- iPhone 3G (China mainland) 8GB
- iPhone 3G 8GB, 16GB
- iPhone 3GS (China mainland) 16GB, 32GB
- iPhone 3GS (8GB)
- iPhone 3GS 16GB, 32GB
- iPhone 4 CDMA
- iPhone 4 CDMA (8GB)
- iPhone 4 16GB, 32GB
- iPhone 4 GSM (8GB), Black
- iPhone 4S
- iPhone 4S (8GB)
- iPhone 5C
- iPhone 5S
- iPhone 6 Plus
This doesn't mean that you're in massive trouble if you're still happily using one of these models, though (and if so, we're impressed).
It just means that Apple won't offer you any repairs if you bring one of them into an Apple Store - you're limited to third-party repair options, which generally can be a little less reliable, although way cheaper in most cases.
Apple doesn't put devices straight into the obsolete list, though. There's always some proper warning of this since it has a middle-ground option called 'Vintage'. As it explains on its website: 'Products are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than five and less than seven years ago.'
So, there are actually quite a few levels that most Apple devices move through as they get older, with support diminishing over time as they age.
It might be a little wild to hear that an iPhone released only five years ago might be technically 'vintage', but this is the consumerist world we live in.