Mobile devices are now in the tailfin era, like 1950s cars. Every year, the styling changes, to force users to buy the new model. 1950s people actually used to buy a new car every year if they could afford it, partly because vehicle reliability and working life sucked.

Then Japanese cars with higher reliability and lower cost started to compete with Detroit's chrome-laden behemoths. That didn't end well for Detroit. Today, cars last about twice as long as they did in the 1970s.