I know people who only buy things once they're fed up with what they currently have. For example, I have a friend who went through three Android devices, two iPhones, several "imitation smart phones" (dumb-phones in disguise), and a Palm Pre. (He went through the Palm Pre because he was driving down the freeway and was arguing with his girlfriend over the phone, so he threw it out the window...
)
I also know people who simply buy new things just because they want new things. In my experience, these people have enough money to not worry about that.
Regardless,
your personal experience doesn't matter. What you have seen (even if it's "most people you know") is a small fraction of the market. More importantly, it's likely to only be the fraction of the market that targets your niche portion. It's unlikely that you, no matter who you are, represent the statistically average consumer for these sorts of things. Making broad statements like "People do this because of that," particularly when it comes to economical things, is more than likely incorrect if it's an assumption made from personal experience.
It's my opinion that it may be easiest (in terms of independent original research) to analyze how high or low the stock value of a company has traveled in correlation to a new product launch or launches. Considering companies still make money from new products (especially Apple!) it's a safe assumption that "people" do indeed buy things because they want new things. But it's not just one class of people. It's niche groups, and it's circumstances, and it's partly the "average consumer" (if there's such a thing). Well anyway, that's just my rationale on this.
Anyone disagree?
