Wired
Will you use a cell phone for seven years?
Perhaps you have become accustomed to the frequency with which smartphones need to be replaced in an average of 2-3 years, but the European Union, which has been attacking the consumer electronics industry in the name of environmental protection, does not seem to take it for granted.
This month, the German government began to push the European Union to pass a new proposal, requiring mobile phone manufacturers to release smartphones to them at least, providing security updates and spare parts maintenance for seven years, trying to reduce the frequency of mobile phone upgrades in this way. To achieve a more environmentally friendly purpose.
Prior to this, the EU’s more well-known action in this field was the proposal in 2019 to require smartphones to guarantee system updates for at least five years. This proposal not only further raises the requirements for the system update cycle, but also adds a new requirement for hardware: “guaranteed support for maintenance of mobile phone hardware spare parts for at least seven years.” This proposal has attracted more attention from mobile phone users. main reason.
Judging from the status quo of the industry, there is still great uncertainty about whether this proposal will eventually become a common law in the EU. And after the proposal was made public, it was met with strong resistance from mobile phone manufacturers: the industry specification organization DigitalEurope hopes that the EU will only mandate system security updates for three years, and that the repairs of mobile phone accessories only include the screen and battery. Does not include cameras, speakers and other mobile phone accessories.
Although there are still many variables before this proposal is finalized, it also reminds us of the soul question about smartphones: Why do our smartphones need to be replaced so frequently today? Why is your mobile phone becoming more and more “short-lived”?
Mobile phone = consumable?
Anecdotal rumors: Every iPhone is manufactured with a dedicated chip installed in the body. When the next generation of new products is released, Apple CEO Cook will press that button, and then your phone will start to go into obsolescence. Mode: Not only will you start to experience various lags and fevers, but your phone will be damaged in various accidents. In short, it is time for you to replace it with a new one.
Of course, this is just a joke. Such buttons certainly don’t exist, but the reality is that our mobile phones are really like “planned obsolescence.” The system also started to become halted, and even the scan code payment has a probability of crashing.
This is certainly not caused by psychological factors. The real reason is that from the beginning of the design, smart phones are now manufactured and produced in accordance with the standards of consumables with a design life of 12-24 months.
This cycle has almost affected all aspects of contemporary smartphones: for example, Apple’s “year-by-year renewal” plan is to allow users to replace the new generation of iPhones in a 12-month cycle; now mainstream installment plans will also provide 12 months Or the 24-month installment plan, so that more people are swayed by the idea of ”rounding is equal to free”, and finally choose to press the payment button.
At the same time, most smartphones now only provide one year of after-sales service support. Therefore, allowing smartphones with a design life of two years to maintain the seven-year official after-sales support and system updates required by the European Union is itself a departure from the mainstream concept of “mobile phones = consumables” today.
But from the perspective of environmental protection, the European Union believes that changing mobile phones slower is a more environmentally friendly future; and looking at this from the perspective of ordinary users, many people indeed believe that: the replacement of smart phones nowadays It’s dazzling fast, and it’s hard to keep up with the iteration cycle of mobile phones. Is it really necessary for mobile phones to change so quickly?
Hardware Update> Software Update
There is actually only one standard to answer this question: whether the phone can still meet your normal use needs.
Since the design life cycle of mobile phones is two years, then as time goes by, mobile phones will gradually “aging” and encounter various problems-some of these problems can be solved by yourself, some are not so simple .
The author now has a flagship phone released in 2016-Mi Note 2. Although Xiaomi’s official system update support for it has ended in 2019, you can still unlock the phone, flash the third-party Android system, and use it. It has experienced more new features of the Android system, as well as a smoother use.
After flashing into the new system, even if it does not have the full-screen design or multi-camera module of the current mainstream mobile phones, it is still a usable mobile phone. As a main mobile phone for light users, it can at least meet the basic requirements. To send and receive information, complete shopping and payment, etc.
But compared to the software update, in the process of trying to “squeeze out” this Mi Note 2, the actual use experience is most affected by the rapid aging of the mobile phone hardware: for example, the battery life is severely reduced due to the decline in battery capacity, and the OLED The chromatic aberration caused by the screen after a long period of use is a problem that cannot be solved by simply flashing the phone.
And if you try to “refurbish” the phone further, you will find that this model is no longer supported in Xiaomi’s official after-sales service. Whether it is the screen or the battery, you can only rely on a third-party repairer, and this transaction It’s not a bargain—the repair price of a replacement screen can already be purchased on a second-hand platform with the same machine with a normal screen.
This is the problem that many old mobile phone users face when repairing their mobile phones: as modern life’s invitation to smart phones gradually increases, mobile phone components are gradually becoming more complex, and mobile phone screens are rising with the increase in the demand for our daily use of mobile phones-4K, 120Hz refresh rate, LTPO and other concepts have been added to the design of smart phones.
In this context, if the old mobile phone fails, the repair cost is very high, I believe many people will be more inclined to choose to buy a new mobile phone to use.
For mobile phone manufacturers, an indisputable fact is: as the mobile phone release date goes on, the number of users using the same model of mobile phone will gradually decrease, and the cost of mobile phone hardware maintenance will become higher and higher. At the end of the design life of the mobile phone, it is necessary to maintain the hardware replacement. The pressure will increase. This is why mobile phone manufacturers are only willing to make concessions on the two options of mobile phone screens and batteries in this EU’s proposal.
However, although it is difficult to maintain hardware maintenance for seven years, as smartphone privacy issues are getting more and more attention nowadays, mobile phone manufacturers have begun to actively add more practical privacy features to the new version of the system, and they have also begun to integrate mobile phone systems. Update as an important selling point to attract users: including providing longer system version updates and security updates.
For example, this year, Samsung announced that all Galaxy smartphones and tablets released by it will receive security updates for at least four years after release, including all devices released after 2019 will be affected by this policy. At the same time, OnePlus also announced Its OnePlus 8 / OnePlus 9 series will support three-year Android version updates and four-year security patch updates.
In terms of mobile phone hardware updates, the iPhone can reduce the maintenance cost of the mobile phone production line to a minimum by virtue of the tens of millions of shipments that can be achieved in each generation. This reduces the maintenance cost of mobile phones.
In addition, Apple has always adopted the strategy of updating the latest system version for old models in the iOS update. Many users who are still using the old iPhone can still experience most of the functional optimizations brought by the new version of the system.
For most Android phones with less production volume, different mobile phone manufacturers have different ways to provide longer-term support to their mobile phone manufacturers: Google will provide longer Android version updates for their Pixel phones. In addition to the cycle, we will also cooperate with third-party mobile phone repair companies such as iFixit to maintain the mobile phone repair cycle at a lower cost as much as possible.
In addition, although the overall cost of maintaining mobile phones after seven years of sales is high, with the increasing number of “nail households” brought by classic models, some sensitive mobile phone manufacturers have also begun to exert their efforts in offline channels: including Xiaomi one. Canada and other mobile phone manufacturers have launched cheap official battery replacement services.
Although these can not bring more direct benefits to mobile phone manufacturers, they can use this method to improve user stickiness. For mobile phone manufacturers that rely more on software services to make money, they will be more willing to promote such products to older models. “Life Extension” service.
After the system version/security update of smartphones has become an increasingly important selling point, the question of “how long the mobile phone can be used” has essentially become “how long can the mobile phone repair service last”.
Even though the “seven-year life cycle” proposed by the European Union now seems quite radical, allowing mobile phone repair services to exist at a reasonable price will not only come from the actual needs of users when software is gradually becoming the revenue focus of the mobile phone industry. , Will also be an important trend in smart phone design.
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