Why don't Young People Upgrade Their Smartphones Anymore?
In the past five years, major smartphone manufacturers have made significant advancements. They have increased the number of lenses and pixel levels, and introduced fast charging technology that can charge a phone in as little as five minutes. Despite these advancements, the cell phone market has not been able to excite consumers as much as it used to.
How long have you been using your current phone?
For most people, it has been three years or more. In the past, during the golden age of cell phone consumption, this number was likely halved. Some even upgrade their phones annually to keep up with trends.
However, even the younger generation, who is typically eager to try new things and always at the forefront of cell phone changes, is finding it difficult to upgrade their phones. In fact, the decrease in cell phone replacement frequency is not due to a lack of interest in novelty among young people. Rather, they are unable to replace their cell phones but frequently change their phone cases.
It is evident that people have always had a desire for freshness. This is why many people are reluctant to change their phones. In addition to reduced consumption, cell phones are becoming more durable. However, the main reason for this reluctance lies in the high-speed development of the innovation period. The current smartphone industry has gradually matured, and various manufacturers are converging on processor, screen ratio, and image ability to create new phones that are increasingly similar in appearance and configuration. This has led to a serious problem of homogenization. If an existing phone is performing well, consumers are unlikely to replace it with a new phone due to minor improvements in the performance of a newly launched product.
The inability to upgrade phones represents the current decline in the smartphone industry. The introduction of folding screens, which emerged unexpectedly during the smartphone innovation crisis, has undoubtedly brought more creativity to the mobile phone industry.
As one of the few positive developments in the mobile phone industry in recent years, folding screens have attracted many technology enthusiasts with their stylish appearance and refreshing experience. Small folding devices are delicate and popular among female users, while larger folding devices are more high-end and atmospheric, and are favored by business professionals for their comfort and efficiency.
However, folding screens have been mocked on social media as 'beautiful waste' and 'technology toys', and consumer complaints often focus on their high price and difficulty in using as a primary device. Folding screen cell phones face many technical difficulties due to issues with the screen.
The screen is not only important for the immersion and coolness of folding screen cell phones, but also where consumers focus their criticism. Complaints often focus on screen creases, cracks, display failures, and leakage, which are largely caused by the material characteristics of the folding screen itself.
Currently, flexible OLED screens are being used to enable cell phones to have foldable characteristics. However, this material is prone to creases, breaks, and adhesive material peeling, which can lead to potential risks such as creases and scratches during daily folding.
Another major hardware challenge is how to maintain the trend of making cell phones thinner and lighter.
Reducing the weight of folding screen cell phones is a challenging task due to the presence of multiple screens and the complex internal structure required to connect them. This structure not only adds weight but also affects the communication function, leading to signal instability.
In the realm of software, folding machines represent a brand new category, which requires the recreation of the software system ecology from scratch. The new screen format requires a new software interaction design that can adapt to a variety of use scenarios, including external screens, internal screens, and dual screens. As the folding machine market is still relatively new, third-party software has not been launched in a timely manner to adapt to the folding screen model version.
To improve the user experience, cell phone manufacturers need to standardise the design and case of software interfaces for folding screen cell phones. This involves joint collaboration between multiple software applications. The goal is to adapt ecological construction software.
