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Comment by exelius | Hacker News Reader

Not sure that feature will justify a $200+ price difference for most people. Plus, you will upgrade your phone every year or two anyway and get all the benefits (faster, better screen, improved features, etc) associated with that, while the CV1 will require a separate purchase to get new features.

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"Plus, you will upgrade your phone every year or two"

Do normal people actually upgrade their phone yearly? I've kept my last several phones for about 3 years each, and I tend to think that'd be overkill for most folks (admittedly, I tend to buy higher end phones, with large storage, so they last a little longer; and I never buy on contract, so I'm paying full price, so I don't want to do it often).

Maybe not now; Apple is starting that "phone on subscription" program to replace your phone yearly, though.

I think the more typical behaviour is to buy on contract and thus upgrade on the one year or two year interval that coincides with the contract.

A quick Google suggests that even two years might be a bit long for Americans: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Americans-replace-their-cell-...

My family has been on contract for last 10 years and so has most people I met in America. The subsidy means flag ship phones at ~$200 with 2 year contract, or a cheaper phone for free. The other part is that AT&T and Verizon had much more reliable signal so it wasn't worth going to another provider.

The average lifetime of a smartphone increased last year from 18 months to slightly over 24. Analysts expect carrier and Apple leasing options to drive this back below 2 years.

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