How does Apple convince people to buy so many iPhones?

They made it a fashion item. It became a must have if you're fashion continuous. They also made it a best in show. If you're are looking for the best, it's a no brainier to buy an iphone. Otherwise you need to be a highly informed tech consumer to understand what a top level phone is. It's too much trouble for most people. Easy sells tech. I don't want to spend too much effort to figure out how to use my phone. If the iPhone saves me a minute of frustration then I'm buying it. They made it affordable by getting financing for it. People can buy it even though it's expensive. Lastly, it really is a cult. People like to be part of the apple crowd.

Google bought Android for the eyeballs it would bring to their ads. They honestly could care less about user experience or usablility. Apple built their portable device to generate a customer base for their store. Anything that makes that easier makes Apple money. People keep updating their phones because of lock in and by making sure the updates don't work well on old phones.

Two years ago, Apple claimed there were over a billion active iPhones out there (https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/27/22253162/iphone-users-tot...).

Ballpark, that probably still is true. If people buy a replacement every four years, they’ll sell about 240 million a year. That doesn’t require them to attract millions of new users each year.

Now, why do users buy replacements? They may lose them, the devices may break down, Apple and/or app makers may stop supporting them, and new ones are significantly better (even if all updates are, as you claim, small, they still accumulate into big ones over the years)

I had an 11 that I was perfectly happy with but Verizon/Apple basically offered me a "free" 14 so I bit. It ended up costing me ~$100 if you account for the upgrade fee ($35), and the tax (~75) but overall a much lower price than retail. These sort of offers usually correspond to the current financial needs of Verizon/Apple.

Thankfully my kids are just aging out of the "we must have the newest iPhone immediately" phase.

"It's immoral to let a sucker keep his money." -Canada Bill Jones

https://www.pokernews.com/news/2016/08/poker-pop-culture-015...

I have two blind family members and iOS changed their life and is adding new features with every update. Android on the other hand is an atrocious mess of half-assed features. There is no implementation either from google or third parties that come even a smidge close. Until that gap is fixed, I will hand my money over to apple and will lobby everyone to do the same.