Maybe not forever, but we have
really short timelines for product longevity in this industry, even at the hardware level. A washing machine or kitchen appliance that had to be replaced every <7 years (taking the timeframe from the post) would be considered low quality; furniture that can't last 10-15 years is considered nearly disposable. Cars -- maybe the thing closest in comparison in terms of complexity and engineering required to build, even if several orders of magnitude more expensive -- are expected to last decades with proper maitenance.
Certainly there is a trend towards this in a lot of industries besides computers, but given how powerful and expensive these devices are now, the current upgrade cycles are crazy fast. I think consumers are souring on them a bit as well (both because of the price, and because the annual new models have really slowed down in the visible feature improvements they offer).
I know the economic incentives for the producers are aligned towards repeated purchases, and that's super tough to realign, but how long can the market and the environment support four-digit phone price tags that are upgraded every 1-3 years?
