In a conversation with cousins Bill and Jen, I was complaining about the relative incapacity of my cell phone. I'm still using a "stupid phone" that I bought back in 2004, and it can't do anything cool like the modern phones can.

The modern economic model for cell phones is a two-year replacement cycle. You trade in your iPhone 2 for an iPhone 3 or your Droid 2 for a Droid 3. So there is no reason to engineer these phones to last beyond two years, and in fact it is advantageous if they don't last too long, to discourage the used market.

So my phone is still working because it was made before the switch to the "upgrade treadmill" business model. I should treasure it as a classic, built back when things were built to last.

I still want a smartphone, though.

Posted by: Boviate at 12:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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