Brian Barrett: The Silver Lining in Apple’s Very Bad iPhone News: "As recently as 2015, smartphone users on average upgraded their phone roughly every 24 months.... As of the fourth quarter of last year, that had jumped to at least 35 months.... The shift from buying phones on a two-year contract—heavily subsidized by the carriers—to installment plans in which the customer pays full freight... a sharp drop-off in carrier incentives. They turn out not to be worth it.... 'It actually costs them to get you into a new phone, to do those promotions, to run the transaction and put it on their books and finance it'. Bottom line: If your service is reliable and your iPhone still works fine, why go through the hassle?...
...Meanwhile, older iPhones work better, for longer, thanks to Apple itself. When Apple vice president Craig Federighi introduced iOS 12 in June at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, he emphasized how much it improved the performance of older devices.... Combine all of that with the fact that new model iPhones—and Android phones for that matter—have lacked a killer feature, much less one that would inspire someone to spend $1,000 or more if they didn’t absolutely have to. “Phones used to be toys, and shiny objects,” Maldonado says. “Now they’re utilities. You’ve got to have it, and the joy of getting a new one is pretty minor. Facebook and email looks the same; the camera’s still great.” In the near term, these dynamics aren’t ideal for Apple.... News that people are holding onto their iPhones longer should be taken for what it really is: A sign of progress and a win ...
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