Christopher Mims poses that the reason that Apple remains top of the pile in the U.S. phone business is the used-carification of the market. "It's not just lavish marketing and the threat of green bubbles," he writes. "Apple's commitment to supporting old phones has allowed it to capture a part of the market once cornered by inexpensive Android devices"
Whereas many of us once upgraded our phones every two or three years, and treated old ones almost as if they were disposable, more than ever these phones are sticking around, and having a long afterlife. That could affect everything from who wins the smartphone wars (hint: Apple) to how the dominant players in this industry make most of their profits (spoiler: not from selling hardware).
Still rolling a nearly 3-year old iPhone 12 Mini here. I also have something from Samsung that was the "best budget phone of 2022" or whatever and I gave up on it pretty quick.
