When It Comes to Gadgets, How Old is REALLY Obsolete?

You know your gadget is obsolete enough when even a robber gives it back to you. (Photo credit: Michael Kwan (Freelancer))

This story shows you how much people nowadays care about the latest trend in technology market. By people, I mean all of us – especially the millenials- who earn a living either by securing a proper, socially and morally acceptable job or robbing others while there’s no job available.

A man robbed by two men in New York‘s Central Park said they returned his cellphone when the outdated gadget apparently failed to meet their standards.

Kevin Cook, one of two men robbed by the duo shortly after midnight Saturday, said one mugger displayed a gun and said he would shoot the victims if they made any noise, WINS-AM, New York, reported Monday.

The robbers took a cellphone, a briefcase and a wallet containing about $114 cash. But Cook said one of the robbers gave him back his phone.

“He just took a look at it and he didn’t recognize it at all. I just assumed that he couldn’t make any money off of it. So he handed it back to me and a minute later I was able to call 911 and get the whole thing started,” Cook said.

Cook said there turned out to be an upside to his outdated 2010 LG Quantum. It’s shocking how care a criminal cared about the gadget newness.

“It’s like, finally a pro for having something out of date,” he said.

But look at the bright side. Now we know that it’s much safer for us to go out anywhere with antique phones in the pocket than having sleek cutting-edge smartphones.

And now on my question in the title, how old is outdated when it comes to gadgets in fact? If a three-year-old phone is seen worth a spot at the nearby museum, or a recycle bin, how about a 7-year-old Motorola Razr or a decade-old Nokia 3315?

Yet if I’m asked, I’d say that could be 2 years and because the increasingly faster pace of tech giants encourages more new gadgets to get released, the time span of a gadget’s coolness keeps shrinking.

As for me, I’ve got a Samsung Galaxy Nexus for more than a year but now that more new gadgets are coming like the inundating flood of Danube riber in the middle of summer, I feel like this handset is llike a relic.