[blitzar]

If my 3 year old iphone falls off a cliff I shouldnt have to buy a "new" 3 year old iPhone because someone decided that people should only buy 1 every 4 years - that would be a collosal waste.

Update the technology on a regular basis as everyone is on a different purchasing cycle.

[badcppdev]

That is such an interesting perspective. You're saying that buying this years model is an important part of buying 'new' for you. I get it but I've never seen it written down before.

I guess cars are the same. If you walked into a dealership and all the models had been released 2 years previous you might feel like you shouldn't be paying full price even though you are getting a brand new car.

[JumpCrisscross]

> saying that buying this years model is an important part of buying 'new' for you

Arbitrarily lengthening release cycles like this is performative. Particularly in high tech. Doubly so in a category that’s reducing its energy and material footprint.

Consider if we did this for cars. New model once a decade. This would be horrible for fuel economies. To say nothing about safety and EVs.

[garte]

Some might say yearly release cycles may be a bad incentive to hold back innovations because you have to bring something new every year... So you do _not_ get the latest and greatest, but a carefully planned "older" product with newer stuff in the pipeline for the next 5 years.

[JumpCrisscross]

> Some might say yearly release cycles may be a bad incentive to hold back innovations

Based on what evidence?

[meibo]

Seems like you just don't want to give up the convenience of being able to buy the most top-notch hardware at any point in time. No one ever said that being sustainable wouldn't be without sacrifices :)