UNITED STATES—I recently purchased a new cell phone maybe a year ago, guess what, I’m already having issues with my phone and I’m annoyed. You cannot seriously tell me a cell phone is only going to last one year. I’m just not buying that. It almost feels like as soon as you are nearing paying off your device, it starts to act faulty, and it becomes an opportunity for your cell phone provider or these companies to force you to purchase a new device.
This isn’t a device that I have dropped or damaged in any sort of fashion. All of a sudden, my emails are taking hours to come thru on the device. I can refresh and still nothing happens. It is baffling me to the point that I am so frustrated. Why? I don’t want to spend several hundred dollars for another phone. Why? That means I have a device that I already paid for that will no longer work (in terms of me making phone calls or texting).
This has nothing to do with whether it is Android, Apple, Samsung, Galaxy or some other tech titan. They are all the same, of course, they want the consumer to purchase a new phone every year or every 2-3 years because it means more money for their pockets. It is like with Apple, I purchased an iPad Mini a few years ago and now half of my apps don’t work because I need to have a software upgrade. What’s the problem with that, my device won’t work with the new software, which means I would have to purchase a new iPad to have all the apps I’ve used in the past to work.
Hello, I’m not trying to spend another $500 to $1000 on another iPad. Damn, Apple upgrades their products every single year in September. New iPhones and iPads and other Apple products are about to be released in the coming days and they’re not cheap. Yes, you can trade in your device and you might get a gift card or a credit towards a new device.
However, if your device is quite old, you get nothing, but you can recycle it. Seriously, Apple, give me a damn break. You’re making millions if not billions on consumers yearly, you can do a lot better when you’re constantly updating software and forcing the consumer to purchase another device or switch to another brand because the costs are just too high to stomach.
Me personally, I will never own an iPhone, I’m not spending more than $500 for a cellphone; it just isn’t happening, even if I can make payments on a plan over a period of 2 years. If I’m spending $1200 for a phone guess what, that is a mortgage or rent payment for a month, groceries for several months, payments to the light and gas bill or some other utilities for 2-3 months. Many Americans don’t think about those things, but perhaps we should start to think about those things.
It is good to have the latest technology, but it should not put such a beating on your wallet, you don’t realize it until you have to truly think about it. Technology upgrades should come with a disclaimer, some sort of credit, gift card or trade-in-value that doesn’t change because you have an older device compared to a more recent device. At the end of the day, you still spent hundreds of dollars on a device. So is all the money I spent for nothing? It is starting to feel that way and that is a major shame, as the tech companies take advantage of the consumer who they know will purchase their products no matter how expensive they become.
Written By Jason Jones
