I think these pricier manufacturers are also waking up to the fact that “upgrading” to a newer model every 1 - 3 years is no longer financially viable for a lot of their customers. They’ve started incorporating new revenue streams (subscriptions for additional features and services) while extending software support to ensure people remain loyal to the product or brand. This is also part of the reason why there are fewer aesthetic design differences from generation-to-generation at the moment, since the reason many of those changes are made is to manipulate people into feeling like their phone is “old” and “outdated” to the extent that they buy the newest model instead.
I bet google doesn’t have to. They can still mine your data and sell it for profit. They’re a data company first after all.
I think these pricier manufacturers are also waking up to the fact that “upgrading” to a newer model every 1 - 3 years is no longer financially viable for a lot of their customers. They’ve started incorporating new revenue streams (subscriptions for additional features and services) while extending software support to ensure people remain loyal to the product or brand. This is also part of the reason why there are fewer aesthetic design differences from generation-to-generation at the moment, since the reason many of those changes are made is to manipulate people into feeling like their phone is “old” and “outdated” to the extent that they buy the newest model instead.