Comment by mr_toad
1 day ago
Some people do put off buying cellphones and laptops when they know a new model will come out every year.
1 day ago
Some people do put off buying cellphones and laptops when they know a new model will come out every year.
The overall trend has been the opposite though, hasn't it? People used to buy a new phone (or new laptop/etc) every couple of years because the underlying tech was improving so quickly, but now that the improvements have slowed down, they're holding onto their devices for longer.
There was an article[1] going around about that recently, and I'm sure there are more, but it's also a trend I've seen first-hand. (I don't particularly care for the article's framing, I'm just linking to it to illustrate the underlying data.)
[1]: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/how-device-hoarding-by-ameri...
> Some people do put off buying cellphones and laptops when they know a new model will come out every year.
Don't confuse technical deflation with the Osborne effect:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect
The Osborne affect has been heavily disputed over the years - it says so in your own citation.
But at least with iPhones, there is a deflationary affect because Apple has since the 3GS in 2009, kept the old phone around and reduced the price. For instance my son wanted an iPhone 16 Plus. I told him to wait until the 17 was announced and he bought one cheaper from T-Mobile