What you're proposing isn't a good thing. It's an ugly, environmentally unfriendly, anti-consumer model.
How many people are debt-financing their $800+ iPhone? How much value is that extracting from people, and what are the opportunity costs for them?
What's the environmental impact of phones becoming nothing more than expensive bricks after 2-3 years due to lack of vendor support, coupled platform DRM that prevents re-use?
What happens when market choices disappear along with the very concept of ownership?
This dystopian ideal of inescapable corporatism may be a commercially viable, but it's not remotely ethical.
> phones becoming nothing more than expensive bricks after 2-3 years due to lack of vendor support, coupled platform DRM that prevents re-use?
I have repurposed my old Samsung android phones around the house as displays on the walls. They all have the net connection shut down and I use the wifi. They all work great and I see no reason they won't work until the hardware dies.
I know this is only one data point. Can someone describe how other models of phones can become bricks?
Edit: People less weird than me can still use the phones like tablets are used without a radio connection.
Ah, I understand what you are saying now. Technically, not being able to install new software isn't bricked since you can still run the old. I only run the browser on my old phones so I didn't notice this.
How many people are debt-financing their $800+ iPhone? How much value is that extracting from people, and what are the opportunity costs for them?
What's the environmental impact of phones becoming nothing more than expensive bricks after 2-3 years due to lack of vendor support, coupled platform DRM that prevents re-use?
What happens when market choices disappear along with the very concept of ownership?
This dystopian ideal of inescapable corporatism may be a commercially viable, but it's not remotely ethical.