I am apple-averse but I think iPhone has handled the backward compatibility of their products much better than google has with their android product.

When one buys a new android phone, it clips along nicely and over the first year gets 2 or 3 OTA firmware updates. Then, when it starts to get slow and glitchy, one is recommended to uninstall unneeded apps and worst case, do a factory reset. If you do this properly, it will also re-install your previously installed apps (so best done overnight). However, within a few weeks or months, it gets slow and glitchy again and eventually one says sod it and forks out for a new one which simply flies along line the old one used to... when IT was new.

Unless one has configured your android phone to notify you of app updates (versus the default of update automatically when on wi-fi) one doesn't really appreciate how often apps are updating, especially the popular ones. However, as noted earlier, the phone operating system, the firmware updates have stopped long ago.

My theory is that android, unlike Windows, is not bound to offer any level of backward compatibility. New apps are being built and old apps are being updated, built on the newest android versions. When you update an app, you have no way of knowing how it will perform when running on a device with 'outdated' firmware. Outdated only needs to be 18 - 24 months. That may be fine for an android phone that costs about 5000-8000 baht new but is a bit of a bugger with the top line 15000 baht and up devices. I think it's a handy way of encouraging punters to keep upgrading to a new android phone at least every 2 years and maintain the market edge they claim to have over apple.

The guy I am working with swears by iPhone, but his one is the iPhone 5 and he reckons it is as fast and friendly as it was when he bought it several years ago. He has no need to buy a new one. I have a 3 year-old, mid-range android that has current (old) firmware, has been factory reset once and is already glacial.