Poll results: Most respondents only upgrade their phone when their carrier tells them to
Early last week, I decided to ask all of you how often you upgrade your phones. Based on some previous conversations I’ve been having with Pocketables readers here on the site, I started wondering how many people actually play the game that carriers want you to play: that is, the game of buying a phone at a ridiculously low price up front, but paying for it over the next two years through expensive monthly rates and a contract with ridiculously high termination fees.
As it turns out, lots of you do play this game. Almost 60% of respondents admitted to only upgrading their phones when their contracts were over, or when their carriers are willing to give them some kind of subsidized pricing. Only 18.5% of you said that you snub contracts all together, while another 18% said that it can depend on the circumstances at the time. Only 5% said that you upgrade your phone only when absolutely necessary, which is still surprisingly high to me – most of you are power users who crave the latest and greatest tech gadgets, so I’m not sure how you manage with a decades-old phone!
DCLocal mentioned in the comments that T-Mobile’s new JUMP! program caught his eye, so perhaps one reader might start upgrading more often. On the other hand, long time reader and forum contributer JRDemaskus said he’s still using his Dell Streak, which is 36 months old!
This just goes to show that “upgrade diversity” among our readers is higher than I thought. If you’ve got anything to add to this discussion, please leave it in the comments below!
