[anbop]

When the iPhone 6S came out the iPhone 4S seemed like a dinosaur. Now even though the iPhone 10S is out the iPhone 6S works just fine. It happened in PCs and now it's happened in phones -- the annual increase in specs eventually passed the needs of most of the market.

[jseliger]

Last year, I replaced an iPhone 6 or 6s with a 7. It works fine and was about half the cost (or less) of the new hotness. Presumably a lot of people are thinking the same.

[lostgame]

Not to mention the environmental benefits! I always encourage the use and re-use of older machines - especially those that can be updated.

The trend of soldered RAM is so awful for the environment. :(

[jbob2000]

Video games used to push the PC market, I remember when you used to have to pay attention to minimum requirements. The last 10 years of video game development has focused on indie games (Minecraft, pubg, etc), and you can run these games on a potato. Why would anyone run out to get a new machine?

Same thing with smartphones. Until a killer app comes along that pushes hardware, there’s no reason to upgrade - any iPhone past the 5 does pretty much everything the XS does.