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Is it time to question the yearly release cycle for phones? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/technology

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So recently I've been seeing the trend where Android OEMs such as Google, Samsung, etc. have been extending their software release times up to like five, six, and seven years after device release. Clearly, phone hardware has gotten to the point where it can support software for that long, and computers have been in that stage for a very long time. From what I can tell, the only OEM that does this currently might be Fairphone.

Edit: The battery is the thing that goes the fastest so manufacturers could just offer new batteries and that would solve a lot of the problem.

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[–] Corndog 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Since everyone here has the big brain idea of telling you you're dumb for not just buying a phone every couple years (completely missing the point of what you were asking), I'll take a minute to actually answer your question.

Yes. Annual refreshes are way too frequent for technology this mature. Slowing it to every other year instead (maybe software releases on odd years, hardware on even?) would dramatically reduce costs and improve stability. Changes would have time to be thoroughly rested and implemented, and they'd get more use out of the same design (including components, molds, tooling, etc.). It would actually be better for manufacturers too, in that it would be more efficient (they'd make slightly less money, but with significantly less work and investment), but they would never do it. Manufacturers don't succeed by being good at what they do, they succeed by manipulating the meta. Regular releases keep your brand on people's minds. Timing your announcements and making a big deal about it makes a huge difference (everyone wants to be the hot thing in Q4 so people buy them for Christmas), and brands don't want to miss an opportunity.

The annual cycle is a marketing tactic. And it honestly works, so I think it's probably here to stay.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I didn't really have any reason to listen to them because I already do not buy a new phone every year and keep them for as long as I can.