Bloomberg: Analysis: Customers holding on to phones longer

I keep trying to get Dad to upgrade his phone... He's still using my old HTC Inspire. We're still on the old contract style plans so he can get a nice phone for $50. He just doesn't want to spend it.

 

I don't see that Samsung has much to worry about. In my experience, their phones start failing after about 20 months anyway. Whether I want to upgrade or not, their planned obsolesces makes sure I have no choice. Without exception that has been true for 5 phone upgrades (between me & my wife).

 

My GS4 is still kicking and will hopefully last me until the new Nexus comes out. Unlike Apple, Google limits software support to two years (was actually 18 months when I got the GS4 two years ago), so it looks like that's going to be my cycle.

 

Well, being a numbers guy, even with the cost spread out, I had a fairly good idea how much. I knew the phones were as much as a cheap laptop. Even the "feature phones" were at least $150 to $200 at one time.

 

It reminds of the exporters complaining when the dollar gets stronger. They complain that a stronger dollar increases the price of their product overseas. So we should all suffer with a weak dollar so the exporters can make their money.