Upgrade Older MacBook Pro to Monterey?

[Missouri Swede]

My daily driver is my mid-2014 MBP.  It's running Big Sur just fine.  I knew that Monterey was coming out at some point, but didn't pay too much attention.  I saw this weekend that it was released a couple of weeks ago. Checked for updates on my computer--none available; checked online and my MBP isn't upgradable to Monterey.  Okay, no big deal.

So then I was messing around in the virtual machines on my computer (through Parallels), and opened up macOS Mojave.  For fun, checked on Software Updates in Mojave, and Apple offers me an upgrade from Mojave to Monterey.  Hmm.  So it appears that my computer can run Monterey, but just not as its main OS.

So how/why do they decide what years to cut off the upgrades for?  Not sure it matters much; just curious.  (My MPB and identical for my wife are running fine, so I don't need to see a reason to replace them just to be able to move to Monterey.)

[iacas]

I don’t know if Parallels truly reports what your computer is accurately. So it might always try to run the update in your VMs.

There are also hacks to let you install it on older equipment.

But why?

[Missouri Swede]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

But why?

Just curious.  I don't need it on our two MBPs, other than keeping the same OS on everything (we've got a more recent iMac I'll move up to Monterey, probably).

I figure that at some point they have to consider older models as no longer supported (7 years on our two MBPs is great--longest lasting laptops I've ever had); just didn't know the reasoning.  Aside from their financial incentive to nudge me to getting a newer computer if I want to keep current, I thought there might be a hardware restriction they have to account for (processors, etc.).

[iacas]

9 hours ago, Missouri Swede said:

Aside from their financial incentive to nudge me to getting a newer computer if I want to keep current, I thought there might be a hardware restriction they have to account for (processors, etc.).

Apple keeps computers operating longer than anyone else. Phones too. Their financial incentive is to keep you using a Mac, period, even if it's older. The lifetime value of a Mac is really quite high.

They don't want you upgrading and, due to the processor or some other things, having a poor experience. So they cut off older Macs at some point. Imagine if a Mac from 2000 could run Monterey. You'd wait 30 minutes for the Finder to launch. 🙂

[nevets88]

A little off topic, but I booted up my 2008 MBP recently. Still works pretty good.