News Regarding the Center
Ideas & Trends: iSee Into the Future, Therefore iAm
New York Times, Week in Review
July 01, 2007
In a sense, technology has become fast fashion, too. People now wait less than two years before replacing their cellphones, compared with
more than three years in the late 1990s. So a hit phone like the early version of the Motorola Razr, which initially sold for $500, fetches
only about $30 now, with a contract.
The increasingly global economy plays a role in the faster churn, said James E. Katz, who is director of the Center for Mobile Communication
Studies at Rutgers University.
Because of all the engineering talent around the world, he said, products can be developed more quickly, and with basic performance less of a concern, consumers buy them more for looks. Mix in what he calls "the professionalization of hype," and the life of a hit product burns
hotter, and shorter.
"The cycle from a little bud to a dead flower is becoming almost weeks," Mr. Katz said.
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