Is the day of unique consoles mostly over?

[Pemalite]

UnderwaterFunktown said:

But the thing is... people also don't have any actual incentive to upgrade their phone when you stop and think about it. Even if your old one breaks (and most people don't wait that long), you're never gonna need the latest high end model, ever. Like you describe with consoles, it's the same just faster, except for phones it's been that way even longer. If you choose to buy a flagship anyway that's the same reason people will keep buying consoles.

That's right. You aren't upgrading. You are essentially just replacing through natural attrition.
But when you replace your device, you aren't buying a several year old phone... Because they aren't on the market anymore.

As for the high-end, you are partially correct there.
A large volume of Samsung/Apple high-end device sales are actually through bundled plans where the device is rolled into your 4G/5G LTE service contract.
This is why a device like the S23 Ultra managed to outsell the plain S23, the higher price just was irrelevant due to plans being pushed by telco's.
https://www.sammobile.com/news/galaxy-s23-sales-higher-galaxy-s22-report/

For those on lower incomes or those who don't have a good credit rating, prepaid/post paid devices tend to be the largest volume sellers... I.E Samsung Galaxy A54... But again, people don't replace them yearly, they replace them through natural attrition and will likely buy another device in that similar class or better.

Samsung rolls over 200~ million phones a year. Most of it's customers are just replacing devices.

Phones are an essential commodity item... And being a handheld device are prone to being dropped, lost or broken through regular usage, where consoles can last decades.