An internal document currently circulating at Telus is purportedly declaring that the Nexus 6P has reached the end of its life and will, therefore, get phased out. It joins three other big smartphones that received similar fate: Blackberry Priv and Leap as well as the Motorola Nexus 6.
The Nexus 6P's inclusion in the devices to be retired at Telus is particularly notable because it is just more than a year old. In comparison, the rest of the aforementioned devices — save for the Priv — are practically ancient. Take the case of the Nexus 6. It has been around since 2014.
Nexus 6P's End Of Life
So if the Nexus 6P indeed reached the end of the line, what will it mean for owners and subscribers in the Telus network?
First of all, when supply finally ran out, the device will no longer get replenished. It is not yet clear if Telus is actively pulling each device out from its stores.
Second, there is the case of support. An end of life means that Telus is already withdrawing any form of assistance it has committed itself to do. These include the delivery of updates and patches, which are critical in ensuring that the Nexus 6P and the three other affected devices remain secured and free from bugs and glitches.
OEM Support
The responsibility of updating software will be passed to OEMs until such time that these stop support as well. Google, for example, is now going to provide the software updates for the Nexus 6P. The Nexus 6, however, is a different story. Google is said to have abandoned this device.
Blackberry Priv and Leap have far more uncertain future. Their maker, one should note, has already given up manufacturing its own hardware. However, last time we heard, it is still developing software, having committed itself to providing over-the-air updates to Priv when AT&T finally dropped the handset from its supported devices.
Nexus 6P And Google OTA Updates
Telus Nexus 6P subscriber can, of course, bank on Google to provide timely OTA update directly. For instance, Google's next big update will purportedly introduce the Google Assistant into the device, a feature that originally shipped with the Google Pixel smartphones.
Google is also known for posting OTA images of its stock Android builds for those users who want to update their devices themselves.
At this point, it is not yet clear if Telus users will be required to install a stock Android build or if their current system will merely get updated automatically so that it is compatible with Google's Android releases.
