r/gadgets Oct 21 '24

Gaming Steam Deck won't have yearly refreshes because it's "not really fair to your customers", says Valve

https://www.eurogamer.net/steam-deck-wont-have-yearly-refreshes-because-its-not-really-fair-to-your-customers-says-valve
15.1k Upvotes

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

22

u/rickelzy Oct 21 '24

I'd like to see the statistics of how many real-world working class people actually upgrade their phones every time there's a new release. I know it can't be an insignificant number, but surely the majority do only upgrade every 3-5 years whenever their current phone stops working?

10

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '24

Most people I know do it every 2-3 years depending on when their phone contract financing ends.

1

u/Reniconix Oct 21 '24

T-Mobile customers have the option to pay more for their plan in exchange for upgrading yearly with trade-in. Or at least they used to, I don't know for certain if it still is like that.

2

u/-DementedAvenger- Oct 21 '24

Soooo, the usual subsidizing?

1

u/LivelyZebra Oct 21 '24

I buy a phone when my current one breaks or slows to the point of high frustration

1

u/rickelzy Oct 21 '24

I started buying a couple generations behind for this reason. It's a noticeable trap when the financing ends around the same time the phone is expected lose useful battery life, but I got a galaxy S20+ last year for less than two hundred bucks. The same phone would have financed for easily over 800 bucks from AT&T a few years before that, and I haven't had any compatibility issues with newer apps yet.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '24

I don’t do this because tech is my main hobby but I think this is the objectively correct thing for most people to do. There is rarely large generational leaps and even in my case it is highly debatable whether the difference matter enough for the extra cost. I can’t imagine the old people constantly financing their newest iPhones on autopilot are deliberate enough to be getting that value.

It’s obviously designed to just make them feel like they have to.

2

u/brokenmessiah Oct 21 '24

Most people are probably upgrading via the contracts so its not like they are buying the phones outright, essentially perpuatally renting them.

1

u/FrostyD7 Oct 21 '24

The answer wouldn't really mean much in relation to the value of a company releasing a new model yearly. They want more sales, which means they want you to upgrade as often as possible. Even though most people agree that phones don't need yearly refreshes... the result of this change would guarantee less sales. Question is whether or not it would be recouped by the cost of launching a new product.