Althoughhis1-year-oldsmart-phonestillworksperfectly，LiJijiaalreadyfeelstheneedtoreplaceit．"Therearemanybetteronesavailablenow．It'stimetoupgrade（更新）myphone．"Li'simpatienceissharedbymany．Shortly
Although his 1-year-old smart-phone still works perfectly，Li Jijia already feels the need to replace it．
"There are many better ones available now．It's time to upgrade（更新）my phone．"
Li's impatience is shared by many．Shortly after the season when new products are released，many consumers feel the urge to upgrade their electronic equipment，even though the ones they have still work just fine．
As consumers'minds are occupied by Apple's newly released products and debate whether the Google tablet is better than the new Amazon Kindle，it might be time to take a step back and ask："Do we really need the latest upgrades？"
According to Donald Norman，an American author，"planned obsolescence （淘 汰）"is the trick behind the upgrading culture of today's consumer electronics industry．
Electronics producers strategically release new upgrades periodically，both for hardware and software，so that customers on every level feel the need to buy the newest version．
"This is an old-time trick-they're not inventing anything new，"Norman said．"This is a wasteful system through which companies-many of them producing personal electronics-release poor-quality products simply because they know that，in six months or a year，they'll put out a new one．"
But the new psychology of consumers is part of this system，as Norman admitted，"We now want something new，something pretty，the next shiny thing．"In its most recent year，Apple's profit margin was more than 21percent．At Hewlett-Packard，the world's biggest PC maker，it was only 7percent．
Apple's annual upgrades of its products create sales of millions of units as owners of one year's MacBook or iPhone line up to buy the newest version，even when the changes are slight．
As to Li Jijia，the need for upgrading his smart-phone comes mainly from friends and classmates．When they are switching to the latest equipment，he worrie