Why annual phone upgrades are just marketing gimmicks
How often do you change your car, buy/build a new house, purchase a new refrigerator, washer, or dryer? That’s right, not very often. While most people would be fine with driving a 2010 Toyota Camry or store food in a 2002 refrigerator, the same cannot be said about mobile device users. The whole upgrade thing has a much bigger impact in the tech industry than in any other realm of industrial or consumer goods. If you walk around with a three-year-old Samsung or iPhone, people see you like an outdated person. Because of this, we feel a need to upgrade our devices every year. The obsession gets so serious that a lot of users believe they must change their devices ones an upgraded version is available in the market. Smartphone companies are fully aware of this obsession and they exploit it well. Smartphone manufacturers use the online leak strategy to keep fans enticed about upcoming features that set the new phone model apart from previous model. They also use the news media to keeps promoting the phone that it becomes a household name even before its final release.
Why you should stick to your current device
While some people might need an upgrade, a lot of smartphone users don’t. let’s say you have a smartphone that has an internal storage space of 256GB, a 4GB or 6GB RAM size. The camera performance is above 16 MP, the battery is 4000 mAh and above, and it is powered by Android 8.1 Oreo, and Snapdragon 855. With this type of device in your hand, you do not need an upgrade anytime soon. Even though we’re in the era of Android 10, you still have a great smartphone that’ll last you for at least three years
You could have a genuine reason to upgrade though
I think we shouldn’t be conditioned to buy when these phone companies try to lure us to, or feel they want us to buy. we’re not zombies. You should resist the lure of a new model if your current model is still fast enough for the Apps you use regularly. Utility should drive your decisions, not the insecurity of being left behind. Check whether the features offered in the new model are worth an upgrade. For example, it will make sense upgrading to a new model that offers 4G LTE with far faster, more reliable Internet connections, as opposed to some gimmicky features like display size, color etc.
