A very interesting study done recently in the USA reveals that smartphone users (older than 2 years) prefer to have software updates for products instead of buying the newest models. They want to receive software updates from manufacturers that bring them new functions and not to buy the latest phone models, even if theirs are more than 2 years old.
Software updates don't have to be very frequent, but they have to bring substantial new functions, or at least that's what people who until now bought new phones once every 2 years want. The study reveals that these consumers are starting to change their habits and prefer to buy phones less often than 2 years, and this affects the manufacturers.
The change would be based on the fact that now consumers buy phones at full price and want to use them for longer periods of time because they have a higher purchase cost for them. There are exceptions to this trend, such as iPhone X, but the phones must be substantially better than the models they replace, so even Apple is affected and that was sold with the iPhone 8.
"We all know people still carrying around a 4- or 5-year-old smartphone and see no reason to upgrade. Consumers are paying full price for new cellphones, so they are treating cellphones like computer purchases and keeping them longer. Software upgrades are keeping many older phones current. They started to market programs where you can trade in your phone and update it every time a new phone arrives. This relieves the upgrade anxiety some people have"
To combat this new trend, manufacturers like Apple have launched programs for selling phones in installments, and they are quite successful because customers do not "feel" the financial effort of buying a new phone. Even so, we are talking about a temporary solution, because as mobile phones become more expensive, people become more and more reluctant to buy them.
