@Albuquerque,
Since humans are copycats and tend to want what the top wants we need some tricks of marketing to separate the trends in consume for the two groups...
Simple reliable and durable is the emphasis for the mass market, while new, limited edition, colour bound flashy and sleek should be the trend to catch the kitsch upper middle class.
If this alone doesn't help firmware updates should come into play to force it.
I am not deliberately inviting companies to push firmware that brakes your smartphone faster or you car, but rather to make late updates in firmware to old products such that they run more stable and keep circulating at the lower end...this would also solve a great deal of needless consumerism pollution since it would end the throw away what you bought last year and would boost the second hand market to avoid trashing perfectly functional tech.