Those are nice!

Yeah, but never thought I wanted to get me one of these.

Let's face it, Microsoft has been trying their damnedest to do this with every prior version of its OS, up to and including v8.1.

In fact, GoG pretty much exists because it has never occurred to them* that people might still insist on playing "obsolete" games, two or three decades after their original release.

*Yes, I know the "real" reason is that removing 16- and 32-bit backwards compatibility supposedly optimizes the software to run at its best on modern devices; it still doesn't change the fact that they've been deliberately alienating one fan base in order to force feed more-recent games at higher prices to everyone else. This was the very first thing I thought of after reading the OP as well.

I think they call that natural progression. But think about, if you were the person who created the buggy whip, would you still push and shove that tech when the horse and cart was replaced by the horseless carriage?

Well, Nexus phones are great but iPhones get at least as many upgrades as Nexus, if not more. I got my iPhone 4 with iOS 4 and support ended with iOS 7. 3 MAJOR version upgrades... That would be the equivalent to, let's say, starting with Honeycomb and ending up with KitKat (which would be impressive too).

Any other Android handset though, maybe one OS upgrade and it's history. (Cue the posters saying they got two)

But like Snowkatt says, technology moves fast. It's not like they are trying to obsolete the older hardware, they just need to build more complex software (and peripherals, e.g. Bluetooth 4.0 and LE weren't available for the iPhone 4, and the wifi chip can't handle multiple interfaces, so Handoff just won't work)

It's a little wasteful, but I don't know how else companies can do it, they need to build something just powerful enough to accomplish its task and make enough money to make a newer, more powerful one.

No, natural progression is not the same as planned obsolescence. To use your example, planned obsolescence would have been if the buggy whip manufacturers had some deal with the farriers or leatherworkers (I'm not actually sure who handled the tack and harness repairs, I thought farriers were just for horseshoes but the wikipedia article says "...and tools" which is vague) to not repair the harness if the owner had an older buggy whip, requiring them to buy a new one to get their repairs.

(It's a little bit of a stretch, but there was no direct analogy in the pre-industrial revolution world for planned obsolescence AFAIK.)

Natural progression is - you have other, notionally better, options, so you won't want to use Widget A any more.
Planned obsolescence is - Widget A, which you need to do Task A, is functional but no longer an acceptable tool. You must still do Task A, but you must use Widget B now, instead.

EDIT: typo

Of course not. But I'm not sure that's the best metaphor here. This is more like when the auto companies responded to the 1970s oil crisis by removing all the personality from their cars, making them all small, square and boring. Now, 50 years later, classic muscle cars are popular again — but you still can't go down to your local dealer and buy one; and today's "classic" cars are still heavily modified from the original: they have things like catalytic converters, power steering and brakes, and air conditioning.

Point is, you might want to go back, but chances are that someone else — whether it be Detroit or Seattle — has imposed some kind of limit.

Well, the "planned obsolescence" is somewhat apparent from what a person who came to replace the compressor in my refrigerator told me: "They make these things so they only last 5 years.", of course, it was three months before the 5 year mark, so I ended up getting a $500 part under warranty. However, I remember refrigerators lasting much longer than 5 years before some part on them fails.
I agree, it was like comparing apples to oranges, but if one thinks apples taste better, then there really cannot be a comparison. :)

Two things:

1. Are you certain your phone would be technically even ready to run iOS 8? Does it have enough memory, fast enough processors etc. etc.?

With Android phones you can quite often update the OS yourself if the vendor doesn't provide the latest Android release to your model, by e.g. installing Cyanogenmod. But from time to time I do see that the newer Android versions have issues on those older phones, they just don't perform well enough or crash a lot (possibly due to low memory) etc.

2. Even if it could run the latest OS, it is understandable vendors drop support for older models at some point. Microsoft will deliver new features and new security fixes to their older OSes only for a limited time, same for Linux distributions, or GOG doesn't support Windows XP anymore, etc. etc. If you keep supporting old OSes/gadgets/whatever for prolonged times, it will quite soon pile up and you have a massive job in your hands to deliver e.g. a security fix to all the supported (including old) versions.

I am not even certain it is intentional for Apple so that e.g. iOS 8 apps won't work on iOS 7, there probably are real technical reasons for that.

https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/2kovjr/how_to_install_apps_that_require_ios_8_on_ios_7/

According to that, each new iOS version comes with new APIs so if some new app uses those, it is understandable the old version without the API will not work.

Then you really should know better.

It reads like that in your annoyance with not being able to use the apps you want to use that you've thrown out a conspiracy theory based on your perception of the world.

Do you know what the costs and trade-offs of the decision to not support the iPhone 4 on iOS 8 were? Could you even give the number of people it affects to the nearest order of magnitude?

Maintaining support for more bits of hardware is far from free, both in money and energy, and at some point that'll outweigh the cost of manufacturing new phones. And bear in mind the only users who matter in energy terms are those influenced by the stopping, not those who hang onto the phone until it dies regardless.

I appreciate your first language probably isn't English but it certainly comes across as if you're not that knowledgeable about the software industry. And without knowledge you can't possibly expect to form a credible opinion.

I do not care about getting the newest IOS version on my phone. Or the newest apps either.
In fact the point was not about my phone at all. it was merely used as an example.

Fact is that some applications from apple stops to work (this is unnecessary).
Some of these are important for the phone usage like "find my iPhone" is.
These demands upgrade to versions that do require a operation system that the phone can not run.
That is planed obsolesce.

I have worked in the phone industry (Creating device driver on PCs for accompanied PC suite's).
There is a reason while no phone is ever build in a modulator fashion like the PC is.
You wold end up selling less phones. Also it is smaller devices. so relative more costly. But it is far from impossible.

One cold start with bringing back replaceable batteries.
One cold make phones where the computer-part cold be replaced. It is that witch gets outdated fast.
and so on.
This wold save on resources.

The main point was that:

Every time a item is unnecessary replaced. Because of planed obsolesce or otherwise. Valuable resources from our planet is wasted.

While I don't disagree with most of your point, this is wrong.

, [url=https://atap.google.com/ara/]Project Ara, and some Kickstarter thing are all modular phones that look likely to be actually produced and sold.

shouldnt you have made that point clear from the get go ?
cause the OP sounds like you have a beef with gadgets becoming obsolete with in a relatively short time span
and its not just me who thought that
everybody who replied thought that

And don't forget Fairphone, which OP might be interested in for a variety of reasons.

Buy an android phone and install open source custom rom that are not controled by big companies.

Like Cyanogenmod, Paranoid , AOKP. You can even have more control of your privacy like decide what can apps access, that overwrite Google Play permission.