Age of the Upgrade

It’s hard to imagine that just a few decades back, people bought electronic items for the long term. Long term as in years, sometimes even decades! Not just in India, but all over the world.

And then manufacturing got outsourced; components shrunk in size, got faster and cheaper; and product release cycles speeded up. To add to all that, as Joshua Topolsky says:

“The appetite for the new, especially in the US, was perpetually whetted by bombastic and hyper-sexualized marketing.”

Of course, this is no longer just limited to the US. Global product release cycles are not just aligned with US spending holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas anymore; they are also aligned with Diwali and the Chinese New Year as well!

Topolsky points out that the Age of the Upgrade started in the early 90’s in the field of, hold your breath, video game consoles! As in:

“8-bit was the old version. 16-bit was the "upgrade."”

He says the video game’s 16-bit “upgrade” was the moment when consumers began to accept that:

“the thing you already owned was going to be replaced, and the replacement was going to be awesome. A more awesome version of the same thing. And there would be something after that, too.”

That “more awesome version” principle applies to almost all electronic items today:

“Stronger. Faster. Familiar, but at once totally different…This was not about buying for the ages — this was about buying for the now.”

But haven’t car manufacturers been doing the same thing with their annual models? Nope, because in case of newer models of cars, “the differences between model years was nearly nonexistent.”

So much has this upgrade come to be expected, that it is no longer a fringe movement:

“As the chocolatey shell of the technological fringe has slid ever closer to the gooey, nougat center of the mainstream.”

The downside of this expectation of the annual upgrade for all our gadgets is that:

“The product release cycle is punctual, predictable... and increasingly underwhelming.”

because:

“Innovation doesn't happen on a product release cycle. It cannot come every 12 months.”