Since my recent posting about extending the life of mobile phones, mobile phone operators have reacted responsibly: "T-Mobile, O2 urging customers not to upgrade"
With such influence I shall have to very careful what I say ;o)
They hint in the article that they don't feel the rate of innovation is as compelling. The real driver is that they run a much better business not subsidising new phones but instead compelling customers with better discount rates on usage. They don't mention being green at all - just the credit crunch. Can't argue with economics!
This still goes back to the point that a drive to extend the life of mobile phones can't be good for hardware manufacturers. Will they respond with more aggressive innovation? Maybe more efficient manufacturing to pass on savings to operators so they can go back to using hardware as incentive? Or will they diversify into software and services that exploit the hardware: ensuring they can fill revenue gap, whilst sneakily trying to get people to upgrade to get even better services?
Who knows, but it is a shame to see that being Green is not a motivation! Clearly my blog isn't having that influence ;o)