zlacker

I think counterintuitively there's less waste this way.

With yearly, incremental releases, people will evaluate what's new from their phone and most people will update on their own cycle, probably every few or several years.

Meanwhile, with gaming console "generational" releases every few years, that is a strong incentive for everyone to upgrade.

If I have a 3 year old phone which I'm on the fence about updating, then I might pass on this year's model and go for next year's. But if there won't be another phone for 3 more years I guess I might as well get this one.

>>losved+(OP)
A lot of people are on 2-year payment plans through their provider and just switch every time.

>>manice+m1
Yes, but those plans cost extra compared to one that doesn't have this feature.

(And don't many plans come with some sort of discount, if you don't upgrade your phone?)

>>eru+F3
Not in every country/region, unfortunately. In my case it's cheaper to upgrade my phone and sell my previous phone than get a BYOB device by a significant margin.

>>sudosy+47
Yes. Though in terms of physical waste that the original commenter brought up, selling your old phone for someone else to use makes that upgrade a pretty good option.

We could look at the total amount of years any phone is used and abstract away from who uses it. Slightly stylised, if we have four people, Alice, Bob, Charles and Dave, and Alice gets a new phone every year, Bob buys Alice's old phone, Charles buys Bob's old phone, and Dave gets Charles' old phone, then everyone changes phones every year, but each phone is still used for a full four years.