2020 is looking like an exciting year. With new technologies like virtual reality and Artificial Intelligence entering the market, common devices and appliances have seemed to evolve as well. The integral fact that there is always a demographic that supports these products, inevitably pushes us to a new and innovative future.

 

However, in this process, the older and slower technology seems to become irrelevant. For instance, would you rather use a tube television for entertainment or an LED smart tv? The smart tv gives us more options, connectivity to a larger network, and almost anything we want to watch.

 

The same goes for products as well; many companies who continuously work towards making better products have to let their old tech fade away eventually. This technological evolution, though slow, is inevitable. Many companies are now stopping updates for their earlier and less sold models. It becomes a problem at times. There is still a large population of people who are incapable of purchasing or are simply not interested in improving the product any further. After reasonably spending and using the commodity, they need to purchase a better one only because of the company’s strategy to stop updates and services to the older devices.  Let us have a look at some of the products that won’t be receiving updates:

 

1. Windows 7

In October 2019, Microsoft announced that they would be suspending support for their Windows 7 operating system. There would be no security updates, non-security updates, paid, and other software related services. On January 24, Microsoft “retired” their product officially, and now onwards, Windows 7 would be a checkpoint in the journey towards better technology.

 

Windows 7 was a game-changing operating system. It was widely accepted due to its simplistic interface and speed of functioning. After 10 years, it has rendered to be irrelevant as compared to the evolution our operating systems have gone through.

 

2. Samsung Phones

Samsung was recently at court in Newzealand with an organization who argued that Samsung had to update their products for at least 4 years after the launch of the product. In all fairness, 4 years does seem fair for time period to receive security updates. But people often complained that their phones stopped receiving updates after 2 or 3 years.

 

Samsung stated that they issue reasonable timeframes for new updates after testing their compatibility with the older models. Since Samsung is free to follow their method, they would soon be announcing a stop on updates on many devices.

 

3. Sonos Speakers

Sonos products recently announced that their older products would not be receiving any new updates. Hearing this, many consumers who owned older products were not happy about it. But the owner of the company made a statement that they had “stretched the hardware limits in terms of memory and processing power.”

 

In addition to this, Sonos is offering a 30% off on any newer model if they exchange their older product. Though a good initiative, it is still not really being accepted.

 

Conclusion

Not everyone is as enthusiastic about new technology. Some people feel that as long as the product satisfies the fundamental need, it is built to do, and it does it well, then there shouldn’t be resources wasted on newer edges to technology.

But having said that, older products are indeed slower and less efficient, and with the rate at which big companies are investing in the “future,” there seems no better option but to move forward. As long as the human effort is less and the machine does most of the work, newer products will keep coming sooner.