I worked for them for a while, and my observation was that the power users upgrade less frequently than the tech-illiterate ones. I think you actually see this behavior across a lot of machines people interact with—especially cars. People who understand and work on cars often like to take care of old ones and keep them running forever, while people who don’t know much about cars will just lease them or buy a new one when they can afford it.

Waste aside, it isn’t necessarily a bad approach. If a user doesn’t know how to update their software or properly care for their device, and they’d rather spend money than learn, then remaining on a relatively quick upgrade cycle does all that for them without them having to think about it, just like how buying a new car resets the clock on your brake pads.

I’d much rather have my tech illiterate mother be the person who comes in every other year for a new phone that she doesn’t really need rather than being the person who shows up with the crusty iPhone gen 1 who is furious that their long discontinued bible phrases app isn’t supported anymore.

Sometimes, money really is the easiest patch to a problem.