The end of new? UPGRADIA prolongs life cycles!

In the digital space, endless consumer desire for the new is served by a never-ending stream of updates. One example? Twitter’s iOS app saw an upgrade on November 19 2013 (version 5.13), a further tweak on November 21 2013, another upgrade on December 10 2013 (version 6) and another tweak on December 13 2013.

In this light, standard iteration cycles when it comes to physical products increasingly feel super-slow and uninspiring: “Six months, and all they’ve added is a slightly better camera?”.

At the heart of the UPGRADIA trend is the shifting of expectations that have been cultivated online – of constant upgrade, iteration and improvement – into the physical world.