Survey: Too many new smartphone models released each year

Do we rush out and buy a new car every time a new model is released? Maybe a few wealthy people might... but the trend that "I have to always have the latest iPhone" and queuing up for hours to be one of the first to own it is just self-indulgent obsession. If you do that, these companies have you right where they want you, with their fingers buried deep in your wallet. Get over it, your old phone will work just fine for a few more years!

One of the problem is Google in which they launch a new version of Android every year as well but most all phones is not able to up-grade the OS so ends up buying a new phone to obtain whatever new features the new OS provides.

You don't go through this process with PCs.

Survey: Too many useless survey is done every year.

Cellphone companies should absolutely take responsibility for recycling old phones. They created this monster by adopting the unsustainable practice of releasing a new model every 6~12 months. DoCoMo was particularly guilty of this up until the market became so saturated that the acquisition and loss of customers devolved into a simple shell game where no company, DoCoMo, Au, or SoftBank, were really growing.

I have my iPhone bought in 2013, absolutely no reason to change, despite getting suggestions to change it to the newest iPhone "for free" every single time I visit the mobile phone shop. Maybe if I got the screen cracked someday or they come up with a completely different new model, with multiple new functions, for now it seems most of the smartphone makers are just releasing "new" models for marketing purposes (to not get "forgotten")

The big carriers in Japan subsidize handsets so you don't benefit from continuing to use an old phone. They like you to switch handsets every two years and then give you the cost of it in dribs and drabs so that you will be locked into a calls/data contract with penalties and the remaining cost of the handset to pay if you try to leave. So you might as well change phones every two years. My wife's is up this autumn, and the only reason to not change is that we might be better off waiting a year if the Iphone will get a much bigger upgrade then. Keeping her current phone will not result in lower bills when she finishes paying it off in October.

To save money, take your old phone and get a contract with an mvno, one of many for docomo or mineo on au.

I use a Nexus 5X I got from a fleabay seller in HK for 25000 yen with an OCN sim, a docomo mvno run by NTT themselves.

Greenpeace branching out.

I have a Samsung Note II from 2012, I feel guilty using my quad-core cpu and a gpu that can analyze protein folding with super computers' speed solely to read books about baking bread and gardening.

Survey: Too many new smartphone models released each year

Add me to that list. I bought a Galaxy S5 new and when I finally got comfortable with it the S7 was already out!

@kohakuebisu AUG. 17, 2016 - 05:20PM JST

The big carriers in Japan subsidize handsets so you don't benefit from continuing to use an old phone. They like you to >switch handsets every two years and then give you the cost of it in dribs and drabs so that you will be locked into a >calls/data contract with penalties and the remaining cost of the handset to pay if you try to leave. So you might as well >change phones every two years. My wife's is up this autumn, and the only reason to not change is that we might be >better off waiting a year if the Iphone will get a much bigger upgrade then. Keeping her current phone will not result in >lower bills when she finishes paying it off in October.

To save money, take your old phone and get a contract with an mvno, one of many for docomo or mineo on au.

Totally agree (if you will be staying for a long time)! A lot of people actually don't get this and focus on being "under contract" for 2 years without realising they'll still be keeping the same subscription even if they don't take the contract. So might as well take advantage of the new phone. If you return your old handset, you can get monthly discount on your bill. Or you can also sell your old unit to the recycle shop. in the end, you actually earn around 二万円 on cash or by discount!

Smartphones are commonly replaced because of its enhanced features. Companies upgrade their technologies to make their presence in market and they do good business. Regards Jafar

It is to the point that THEY don't even bother find a new name, just increase the last digit number.....