> most people would consider upgrading anyway

most people would buy one phone and keep it forever if they could, because most people can't actually afford to be replacing their phone frequently.

The only reason they do is because they get slower, or battery gets worn out or whatever else. If their one phone actually lasted forever they would likely happily keep it forever

Especially now that there are near zero new hardware features to differentiate the latest models. “Oh 3MP better camera on what was already a fake big number. Cool, I guess”

The only reason I upgraded to my current model was to get USBC (thanks Europe!!!).

Agreed. Not much differences between new phones and couple years older phones if you are not doing crazy gaming on phones. At least for me but maybe some of you might have good reasons to upgrade and can tell us ?