Major video codecs still change every 5 to 10 years. Even Youtube can be largely unusable on otherwise serviceable old hardware because there is no or outdated hardware assist for decoding video.
Since CPUs and soon GPUs will level out, then at least crypto and video will be pushed into hardware blocks meant to encode/decode them. Churn in functionality requiring hardware assist will probably keep us buying some new hardware at least once and probably twice a decade.
This is incorrect. A primary motivation I have for asserting ownership of my mobile (aka rooting) is system level adblocking. Adaway is what I use for this BTW.
Apps are free to work or not if I kill ads. I just shrug and either buy the app or use something else. I absolutely do not put up with the interface of my mobile looking like the Vegas Strip.
Since CPUs and soon GPUs will level out, then at least crypto and video will be pushed into hardware blocks meant to encode/decode them. Churn in functionality requiring hardware assist will probably keep us buying some new hardware at least once and probably twice a decade.