Agree with Jeff Bowser that incorporating info on insured vs. uninsured might be helpful for interpreting results in a meaningful way.
Also helpful in interpreting results would be a question like “Do You Always Like To Have the Latest or the Best Technology,” voted for on a scale from 1 to 5.
Another consideration that might only work incorporated into a separate poll would be “Which of the Following Would Be Reason Enough For You to Upgrade Your Hearing Aids?”
For me the question of upgrading is just sane use of my money. I don’t chase the latest and greatest computer or smartphone. We’ve usually kept our cars about 13 years and always put 100,000 miles or more on every one. But for any one of these things, if there were a stupendous reason to upgrade, benefits that leapfrogged the past, I’d upgrade for sure. If premium HA’s come down in price or the OTC movement provides great, less expensive HA’s with exciting technology, sure, I’ll upgrade more frequently. It’s the MONEY vs. the BENEFIT!
The thing about Google getting into this with Live Caption, Pixel Buds, research on dealing with speech in noise, etc., is that it has resources that dwarf Phonak’s and a world audience and an openness to improvement contributions from anywhere, e.g., ReSound can contribute its experience with MFI, within the limits of licensing strictures, to the development of ASHA, etc.
So if anyone is going to come along with killer AI technology and a hearing app ecosystem that makes me want to upgrade for “must-have” improvements, I think I’d bet more on Google and its collaborators more than anyone else, e.g., now it’s Apple that’s trying to keep up with Google’s Pixel camera technology … Since Google has shown increasing interest in improving sound technology, I’m hoping it leads to more stellar audio performance with smartphones, earbuds, headphones, and eventually hearing aids. Their Live Caption video ad that shows the woman trying to announce to her friends that she’s pregnant as a subway train rolls by and wipes out what she’s saying shows Google is focused on speech in noise and has the AI chops to do something about it (the two premier AI interfaces these days, TensorFlow and Keras, come straight from Google, too)
So a poll that asks how many years until you upgrade is not as useful as one that also asks (in an easily linked way) “and why is it that you made this choice?!”
P.S. on “easily linked way” - if one clicked on an avatar in the poll, one ought to be able to jump to the 1st comment that user made in the thread relative to the poll, for instance. That would be a helpful forum software improvement.