You should buy it. Every time. Fuck subscriptions.

Lease your phone so that you have enough money to finance a pizza.

“YOU OWN NOTHING!!”

Serious question: How is subsiding a phone over three years and then trading it in at the end of those three years to get another phone any different from leasing ?

I want an essential phone. Not too basic and not too “smart”.

An important thing to note here is that this isn’t anything new. This is what a significant amount of people have already been doing for years through their carrier. I don’t have any statistics on hand for this, but I personally don’t know a single person who has bought their phone outright. Everyone just leases their phone through their carrier around here, and upgrades as soon as they’re allowed. Hearing people complain about their cellphone plan cost increasing or poor cell service but being unable to switch carriers until their phone is paid off is a common thing to hear, as carriers have been using their phone leasing programs as a substitute for plan contracts for awhile now.

Leasing your phone through your carrier with the ability to buy or turn it in at the end of the term has been the name of the game for a very long time. What Apple and Samsung are doing is just trying to entice you into going direct through them instead of your carrier which is actually a good thing.

If you’ve been buying your phone outright then you shouldn’t use a program like this, but if you’ve been leasing your phone through your carrier I’d actually recommend switching to just doing the same thing directly through the manufacturer since it frees you up to switch carriers whenever you want.

Initially I used to only buy new phones when my phone became too slow - roughly every 6-7 years. Now I get refurbished or get it from someone else for free and replace the battery. My current phone is from 2018 and still works well. Why would I replace it?

Or, maybe their CEOs can stick them in their asses.

The only thing prompting phone replacement for me was battery life. And nearly all phones have shit ability to replace batteries (for now - EU rules incoming).

I bought a Fairphone 6 with /e/OS. I’ve left Big Tech behind. And I have a phone where I can easily replace the components. I don’t want to swap devices for 4-5 years, which makes ownership far more cost effective than leasing.

Also – with leasing, what happens when the renter is done with it? E waste, just like we have today.

No, and also fuck off with that.

Instead of innovating to create a better phone each year that users want, they seem more interested in just changing the business model. I used to be a person that would upgrade my phone every year or so, now I only start looking when my phone is within 1 year of end of life.

The way I read that title: Apple and Samsung stopped innovating, now sales aren’t growing, so it’s time for enshittification.

With smartphones current prices and componants becoming more expensive they are realizing not a lot of people will buy a smartphone costing more than 1500 dollars. Especially when hardware is now good enough and people are starting to try to keep their phone as long as possible.

Making you rent your phone allow to hide how much it’s going to cost you and ensure them a steady cash income.

Not beating the WEF’s “you will own nothing and you’ll be happy” conspiracy aren’t they

All companies see there are more profits to be made if you let consumers pay your company monthly instead of once, while you do not let them own anything. It is disgusting.