Originally posted by photoptimist You are right. The churn in cameras and smartphones has abated but that doesn't mean no one buys them anymore.
That isn't the point - people buy them less often, so monthly sales are lower. Under the plan we had two years ago from Verizon, I was 'entitled' to a new phone every 24 months; if I waited 2 months, I paid exactly the same amount, but I waited longer for an improved phone, so I had no incentive to spread out upgrades. Under the plan we have now from Verizon, the same company, when I get a new phone, I start paying for that new phone over 24 months; if I wait 2 months, I get two months of reduced bill because for those two months I'm not paying for a phone. For years, our entire family got new phones right on schedule; 2018, when our two-year anniversary arrived at the end of December, only my wife and our younger daughter got new phones "on schedule"; our old daughter chose to stick with her old phone for a tad longer, because she was getting married in January, and she didn't want to leave us with the bill for the phone that she'd be taking with her, and I didn't see a phone with a camera better than the one I already had, so I stuck with my old one.