How often do you upgrade

[#1]

How often do you upgrade things like mobile phones, computers, tablets and other gadgets any why do you upgrade ?
I was watching a program recently where there was a queue of over a hundred people outside a shop to buy the latest iPhone or something very similar. The shop had not even opened yet some had been there most of the night.
The TV interviewer asked one person near the head of the queue what  phone he had at the moment and he confirmed it was the current one, when asked why he wanted this new model he looked stumped for a few seconds and then said, "well it comes in a different colour and the edges are more rounded, it probably has some new apps " but didn't seem to know what these might be.
Seems the secret is in the advertising, getting you to buy something but not really knowing why you want it.

[#2]

personally I tend ot upgrade only when something is broken or no longer performs the task(s) required,
the last time I changed mobo/cpu in my pc was in 2009, conversely I've replaced parts of it with upgrades several times as they have failed, my mobile got replaced twice last year, the first was second-hand handset from ebay (for a lot less than the shop price) to see if I liked it and the second time was the handset I actually wanted prior to that I'd had the same phone for 7 years (nokia 5800)  only it wouldn't work with the new sim chip so I was forced to replace it .....
but generally I find waiting for stuff to stop working is the best way to determine if an upgrade is required and some times I find myself lamenting the lost features of the old unit and wishing It still worked ....

[#3]

I've noticed that often a phone 'upgrade' can only mean a few extra features that I don't need and sometimes some of those extras can be included in the old phone in the form of a firmware patch.
Up until recently I've only upgraded my phone when changing carrier (excluding the period when I had a company phone) and the phone was included in the deal.
This time I'll stick with what I have until April 2015 when I'll have a look at what's on offer for an upgrade and then decide.

[#4]

Phone: When I get bored/fancy a change, (usually between around 12 - 18 months) and I buy my phones outright/off contract and am on sim only deals. That way you don't get ripped of by the carriers/pay over the odds for the phone and get locked into long contracts.
Plus I tend to sell my phones on, so the cost to 'upgrade' is fairly minimal.
Tablets: Still using the original Nexus 7 and see no reason to upgrade, so probably when it breaks/becomes unreliable.
Laptops: When they break, become unreliable or become underpowered for the tasks/software. I think the newest of our laptops is around 3 years old.
We gave up on desktops years ago and wouldn't give one house room now...

[#5]

phone ,, i still got a a nokia 6330i no need to upgrade it rings when someone calls   thats all you need .
PC now there is a thing , its made to be upgraded  every time i have spare cash it goes inside my little beast  its not too bad at mo, windows rating i know its nowt but its a good baseline 7.6 
this one will now do till April next year , when i new build is in order .
That's a point i wonder what the average windows benchmark is on this forum ? anyone going to post 

[#6]

Laptops, desktops and tablets I replace only when I have to. For what I do with them I don't need the latest wiz, bang or wallop technology.
Mobile phones I tend to replace when the contract is up which in my case is every 2 years. I find it annoying that as the phone gets older I have to charge it more often and am often caught out by poor battery life.

[#7]

I upgraded the cpu on this pc earlier this year, other than that it has had drive updates as old ones fail. I added a Blue-ray writer to do archiving a couple of years ago.
Phones still using the one I bought 9 years ago   Still on my ORIGINAL £10 credit as well.  
Btw the pc is a freecycled one I got about 5 years ago, I upped the cpu from 1.8Ghz to 2.66Ghz the max upgrade - I think it was ~£15.
I upgraded my laptop but only 'cause I was offered a better one for the carriage cost. (OK so it had a few problems, like the dvd doesn't work & the hdd was dead. But it is 100% faster than my old one and I don't need the DVD on it - HDD from an other l/t I got given)
As to battery life, you CAN get new batteries you know 

[#8]

A good example of upgrading to the latest technology:
Upgrade

[#9]

Quote from: Hairy

As to battery life, you CAN get new batteries you know

Tried that on my Samsung S2 but a new battery didn't work. Apparently it is not an uncommon problem with older phones. O2 even suggested updating to the latest Android, Kitkat, which they did for me but that didn't help so a new phone was ordered

[#10]

Strange never had any issues with new batteries on mine, but I tend to get them when I get the phone and keep swapping them.

[#11]

I upgrade when I either have to (with no choice) or find something that is too good a bargain to ignore.
For example, my mobile phone was on a PAYG costing me around £20 a year but the phone was failing, buying a new Nokia to replace it would have cost me around £100 for what I wanted so when I was offered a deal with a free phone (the one I was after) and unlimited texts / 500 mins of calls and 250Mb data for £6 a month I relented .....
Then there was my workshop PC, it was running a triple core Athlon but the kiddies machine was dying and needed an upgrade. A new AMD 8150 was spotted at £53 including postage from DABS so my workshop machine was upgraded as was the kiddies machine with my old processor. I also found a nice new home in the workshop machine for the 8Gb ram that I got for £17 from Amazon last year .....
Now my car is another matter, it looks a bit of a wreck, has a really jerky drive but cost me next to nothing (writeoff from a scrapyard with very minor cosmetic damage) and has just flown through its MOT for the third year running so I'll probably keep it for another year (unless a bargain turns up !)

[#12]

I usually get an uprated Anker battery for my mobile phone, the last one being for my Samsung S3 where the original battery, when removed was quite swollen.

[#13]

What's an Anker battery Strat and how dear are they?

[#14]

See here http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008AGA6PK/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[#15]

Each to their own and it depends on what you need things for.
My phone makes calls/text, receives calls/texts that all I require of it. PAYG, Will be upgraded when the battery dies.
My tablet is useless for work, only good for emails and browsing and playing games wouldn't buy another.
Desktops tend to have more features good if you use them for work.
My right hand buddy is my laptop, but it must be fast and have a dedicated graphics card as I do a lot of graphic work.
I'm not into changing for changing sake especially PCs as they are too much of pain to set up as the previous one was.