The Lifespan of Phones

[Trusstopher]

It seems like there a quiet a few people here in the same boat as me: Droid 1 on it's final leg and 1 month +/- their upgrade. This has got me pondering a couple of things...

It wouldn't be too hard for Verizon to cull out "upgrade dates" and see when the most amount of people will be most likely to upgrade/re-up their contract or escape to another carrier... It seems like it would make sense for them to release handful of "strong upgrades" centered around 2 years after the droid 1's release. Maybe this is common knowledge, but I just put 2 and 2 together and had the light bulb flick on and figured I should share.

Now more to the point of this forum and my question: There are a lot of people whose OG droid has "one foot in the grave" or is "on it's last leg" (mine would be a goner if I hadn't replaced my touch screen a couple months ago). What I'm not seeing is anyone with any other branded devices in the same situation. My guess is that it's because the Droid 1 is the only 2 year old android on the market and the rest haven't hit their designed integrated 2 year obsolescence feature.

One of the deciding factors in which phone I end up upgrading to is longevity (at least in terms of brand reputation) and that really hasn't been discussed here. Right now I do not have confidence that I will be able to "finish strong" in another two years if I go with another Moto device but will be left to limp across the finish line again.

Considering current phones on the market, do you think the Bionic or one of the other upcoming big players will fair better in those critical final 3-6 months of a two year contract?

 

[brad92]

I am not quite up to a year on my Droid X. I got mine at the end of September. As of right now, all my keys are very loose and require you to press hard on them to make em respond sometimes. I don't think mine will be able to make it 2 years.

CM74DX

 

[jstafford1]

My D1 was far from having a foot in the grave. Runs great still as my daughter little game pad. These things are all relative. You don't hear people talking up their devices, what you do hear are the complaints. I upgraded because I wanted too not because I had too. I'm sure there's alot of D1's with alot of life left to them out there.
I doubt there's a "designed obsolescence" built into these things. Some just have harder lives than others.
end of line...

 

[sweeeeet]

two dead here.... my touch screen is shot ... the middle of the screen is untouchable between the home and menu buttons.... also the home button..... my other one random reboots and doesn't get calls

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[brad92]

My D1 was far from having a foot in the grave. Runs great still as my daughter little game pad. These things are all relative. You don't hear people talking up their devices, what you do hear are the complaints. I upgraded because I wanted too not because I had too. I'm sure there's alot of D1's with alot of life left to them out there.
I doubt there's a "designed obsolescence" built into these things. Some just have harder lives than others.
end of line...

I feel its like a car. They have a certain service life that they are built for, usually, a safe margin out of warranty.

CM74DX

 

[jstafford1]

My D1 was far from having a foot in the grave. Runs great still as my daughter little game pad. These things are all relative. You don't hear people talking up their devices, what you do hear are the complaints. I upgraded because I wanted too not because I had too. I'm sure there's alot of D1's with alot of life left to them out there.
I doubt there's a "designed obsolescence" built into these things. Some just have harder lives than others.
end of line...

I feel its like a car. They have a certain service life that they are built for, usually, a safe margin out of warranty.

CM74DX

It does seem that way. All the major stuff starts breaking within a year after the warranty is up lol

end of line...

 

[DoctorV]

I have an HTC Ozone which I've had for two years now and it's still running like it was brand new. No issues with the battery and no other consistant nagging problems. About three times a year I'll have to pull the battery due to a lock up/boot up issue but other than that I can't complain. It has the stock Windows Mobile 6.1 on it so it's not like I can do a whole lot on it to make it wear out faster The best thing about it is being able to run a Nintendo emulator on it and it's got a pretty good D-pad to be able to play those games. When I get a new phone I'll always keep it just in case as a reliable backup.

 

[Trusstopher]

When the right 1/3 of my touch screen went out I was just outside of my warranty window at which point they were nice enough to give me a "great offer" to retroactively buy insurance on my phone and then file an insurance claim which would have resulted in somewhere around $150 if i remember correctly, or buy a new phone at full price, or cancel my contract for $380 or something in that ball park, or I could go to a shady repair shop around here where they would fix it for $100... so I chose plan "E" and ordered a replacement screen for $20 and fixed it myself and gave everyone in plans "A" through "D" the finger

 

[stevek]

I'm just starting year 2 on my X. I think I'm filling up my SD card with apps but other than that it's finest kind. I have a rubber sleeve on it, have dropped it a couple times onto hard surfaces, and so far got lucky.......................

I'm hoping for another year and then I'll get something fast! OH, and I still get over 24 hours on a charge!

 

[dgoakill]

My D1, which will be 2 in December has been on life support since about May. Random reboots, freezes, dropped calls, dropped 3G, dropped GPS etc.. hard reset several times, rooted, various roms and kernals and still not much better. guessing it's a hardware issue.

My friends HTC Incedible was the same way, rather then root, he just got rid of it and went to the dark side (Iphone 4).

His complaint as well as mine was that things were fine until there was an update sent out. I forget what version tanked him, but mine was right after 2.2 That's when things started to happen that hadn't in the past. As time went on things got worse.

It's not so much the phones themselves I worry about, it's the updates which I feel are too much for the older hardware to handle, or at least it seems. Most of my friends have a droid of one type or another and all complain about something with each of them and all can pin point the beginning to a particular update. They still love their phones, this isn't a bash session, just stating observed conditions and wary going forward. It's not so much phone manufacturer for me as it is android itself. Though maybe the solution is to just root day 1 and take control of your property?

 

[Renae]

My d1 is doing fine on the hardware side of things. But I have a bunch of apps that I feel that I can't live without and my system is really bogged down with the small amount of storage available. all of my buttons work fine, my screen is great with no scratches and I don't have a screen protector, the sides and back are good. Maybe I am gentle with it but physically it is in good condition. I just want something faster with more space for apps that won't allow me to move to the sd card. I'm ready for you bionic!

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[wseyller]

My D1 is just fine. I'm gonna hand it over to my wife who never had a smartphone. It just depends how well you take care of your things. I am particular about my electronics especially my phone. I make sure there is no way that I will drop it. I won't let it anywhere near a source of water. I don't let anyone use it. I have a 13 year old niece that breaks ipods like crazy. She has three of them with a cracked screen. My 28 year old sister has dropped 4 phones in water in the past year.

Take care of your phones!!!!!!!!

 

[ConqSoft]

I usually get 6-8 months out of a phone before I'm ready to move on to the latest and greatest. My Droid 1 made it a year before I replaced it with the X. The X only lasted about 6 months before I got the Thunderbolt. And if the Vigor comes out in October as is projected, the Thunderbolt will only make it a couple of months.

 

[Low Saturn]

I still have my original Droid. FedEx man delivered it December 30th 2009. Functions better now than it did the day I got it thanks to CyanogenMod 7. And it looks great too. Other than the gold coating coming off the camera button. It looks brand new.

I'd post pics right now, but I can't take pics of my phone with my phone. I can't believe they dont have an app for that.

 

[DROOIID]

I still have my original Droid. FedEx man delivered it December 30th 2009. Functions better now than it did the day I got it thanks to CyanogenMod 7. And it looks great too. Other than the gold coating coming off the camera button. It looks brand new.

I'd post pics right now, but I can't take pics of my phone with my phone. I can't believe they dont have an app for that.

I believe a mirror is what you are looking for lol