Technology

What is to upgrade? Smartphones/phablets were always going to reach a peak, where the innovations that can be made are small. Screens look amazing, cameras are incredible, it's all at a point where phones do everything we want them to really well. Upgrades now are just iterative, battery improvements are welcome, improved camera sensors would be cool, but we dont need any of it, even faster SoCs, brighter or higher resolution screens are pointless now.

They can't really do much more, we dont need thinner, they are worse. Folding could be a potential avenue, but it's not there yet, they are far too fragile. There's going to have to be some new breakthrough tech to make a lot of people buy new phones, until then, they will have to keep trying to sell AI and some other bullshit features.

When flagships cost $500 I would keep them for 2 years. Now they cost $1000 I expect them to last twice as long. 🤷‍♂️ "The market" isn't only dictated by supply, it's supply and demand. It cuts both ways.

Quickly and people, you need to become more wasteful again, you're hurting the economy

lol nice economy

kill the job market, ramp up inflation.... who could have ever seen this coming.

Damn Edward Bernays and his consumerism. Maybe it would have happened anyway, but he pushed the idea of throwaway, buying the latest, trashing what works or could be repaired. So much waste for the sake of the economy.

I'm at 3 years with my current phone and it still does everything I need it to. No need to replace.

"Economy" is almost always corpo newspeak for wealthy people's money. If they actually meant the economy as in everyone's stake in the economic system the phrase "cost the economy" would be meaningless. Buy devices second hand direct from individual seller markets or older models. The article also quotes multiple CEOs but no labor leaders.

Either 22 or 29 months is ridiculous.. things should be used until they break and then ideally repaired and used more. My last phone I used for 7 years.

Smartphone companies are trying to push phones with planned-obsolescence on people sothat people buy new phones more frequently, and that's a bad thing for the consumers because they have to spend more money.

The best way to respond to that is if consumers prefer buying smartphones from companies who have produced long-lived smartphones in the past. That means if company A produces shitty, short-lived smartphones, people indeed buy a new smartphone after a short while but from another company B who is willing to develop better quality.

Hmm... I wonder if this could be a factor here...

7 years now.

Can't wait until it becomes a 120-month phone lifespan, or people not being willing to upgrade plans and look at budget providers instead.

From a macroeconomics perspective, the best way forward is to give people money (handouts) so they can buy more stuff. More consumerism -> hotter economy.