First off, this is mostly based off of anecdotal evidence so don't take it too seriously; it's just a thought I had.
I'm in my twenties, and like many people my age, I'm usually chomping at the bit to get my upgrade a good 6 months prior to my actual date. I can't wait to get the latest and greatest. You should've seen the smartphone envy I had when my wife had the HTC One and I had the BlackBerry Bold 9930. Meanwhile, my Dad is the sort of person that thinks more on the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. He's rocking an LG Rumor POS slider with a non-capacitive touchscreen, and he's had an upgrade for 2 months just sitting there. I feel like a lot of older people that are not used to the quick turnover in electronics are like this, and don't mind missing out on the best features because they're comfortable with the device they had (which probably took them a long time to figure out in the first place).
In my professional life (I'm a first-year attorney) I find that a lot of middle aged and older lawyers and office staff have iPhones. They don't really know much about technology or phones or anything (one time I told a co-worker that my wife got the HTC One, specifically saying "HTC" and he asked if that was a Samsung or a Droid), but they know that the iPhone is a great phone, so they get iPhones (much like a few years back when business people knew BlackBerrys were great so they got BlackBerrys). These are the same type of people that have the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality that my Dad has. They were dragged kicking and screaming into the smart phone arena, spent forever trying to figure out this device, and don't want to rock the boat again. They will be using that iPhone 4s until it completely dies.
These people that hold on to a device until it breaks, as opposed to until it is old, seem much more likely to get an iPhone than one of the Android or Windows flagships lately. So my question is, do you think that these sort of consumers will drive down sales of iPhones in the long run compared to the other platforms? Should Apple change to try and attract more users who want to be on the cutting edge?
I'm in my twenties, and like many people my age, I'm usually chomping at the bit to get my upgrade a good 6 months prior to my actual date. I can't wait to get the latest and greatest. You should've seen the smartphone envy I had when my wife had the HTC One and I had the BlackBerry Bold 9930. Meanwhile, my Dad is the sort of person that thinks more on the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. He's rocking an LG Rumor POS slider with a non-capacitive touchscreen, and he's had an upgrade for 2 months just sitting there. I feel like a lot of older people that are not used to the quick turnover in electronics are like this, and don't mind missing out on the best features because they're comfortable with the device they had (which probably took them a long time to figure out in the first place).
In my professional life (I'm a first-year attorney) I find that a lot of middle aged and older lawyers and office staff have iPhones. They don't really know much about technology or phones or anything (one time I told a co-worker that my wife got the HTC One, specifically saying "HTC" and he asked if that was a Samsung or a Droid), but they know that the iPhone is a great phone, so they get iPhones (much like a few years back when business people knew BlackBerrys were great so they got BlackBerrys). These are the same type of people that have the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality that my Dad has. They were dragged kicking and screaming into the smart phone arena, spent forever trying to figure out this device, and don't want to rock the boat again. They will be using that iPhone 4s until it completely dies.
These people that hold on to a device until it breaks, as opposed to until it is old, seem much more likely to get an iPhone than one of the Android or Windows flagships lately. So my question is, do you think that these sort of consumers will drive down sales of iPhones in the long run compared to the other platforms? Should Apple change to try and attract more users who want to be on the cutting edge?