So recently I’ve been seeing the trend where Android OEMs such as Google, Samsung, etc. have been extending their software release times up to like five, six, and seven years after device release. Clearly, phone hardware has gotten to the point where it can support software for that long, and computers have been in that stage for a very long time. From what I can tell, the only OEM that does this currently might be Fairphone.
Edit: The battery is the thing that goes the fastest so manufacturers could just offer new batteries and that would solve a lot of the problem.
Makes sense from manufacturing and business perspective to refresh your offer every year. It doesn’t have to be a huge improvement, but technology slowly advances, there might be a better or cheaper manufacture for some components, etc.
On the other hand there no reason for any individual to be buying a new phone so often. Software support must be a thing - there’s no reason for a phone to become obsolete after 2 years because of the software. It’s a computer, you can update the OS almost indefinitely.