TORONTO - After a cell phone goes skinny dipping in a portable coffee mug, many are likely to think it worthy of a repair instead of financing a new one.

Think again.

Experts say the cornerstone of the tech industry is "planned obsolescence" where it is often cheaper to buy the latest gadget than fix an old one.

Jesse Hirsh, a Toronto-based technology analyst, says fixing last year's iPod goes against the grain of consumer technology which has morphed the masses into a disposable gadget society.

"There is a tragedy to that. It makes it more difficult, and sometimes more expensive ... to fix it," he said, adding that the latest version of the technology is often ten times more powerful with more memory and more bells and whistles.

That said, Hirsh is amazed by what he calls a "boom" in the last couple of years of iPhone/iPod fix-it shops.

"(These) allow people to get eight, 10, 12, 18 more months out of products that are really designed to last a year, maybe two at tops."

"So clearly there is interest there (to fix older technology) but at the same time a lot of this stuff is junk -- and is designed that way."

Ash Mansukhani is the owner of Tech-Know Space, a shop in Toronto that upgrades, integrates and repairs digital technology.

He says it's not that these items are built for the short term, it is just that some people are a little too casual with the device -- either misplacing, roughly handing or submerging it.

These devices may benefit from repair, especially if the cell phone contract is not up for renewal -- making a new phone a costly endeavour

Others simply want the latest technology or the latest design.

Fashion over fixes

Hirsh said that part of the short life of gadgetry is that consumer electronics have become part of fashion.

"The iPhone is a fashion accessory and the nature of fashion is that it goes in and out of ... fashion," he said.

"Seasons come and go very quickly and that is what is driving the consumer electronics industry and it is not sustainable in hard economic times."

Mansukhani's shop has been fixing phones, BlackBerrys and laptops for a couple of years and business has always been rising, but over the past few months he has seen more of an increase.

He is unsure if the "boom" is related to the economic downturn forcing people to rethink new purchases or simply that people are realizing some tech devices can be fixed -- for a price.

He said many of the repairs requested are from older clients who don't want the hassle of learning a new system or inconvenience of putting in all their contact information and music downloads into a new device.

They are willing to pay the price for convenience.

Other customers purchase models on the Internet with less than satisfactory results.

"We get a lot of people coming to our store saying, `We bought this on Craig's List and it's not working'... if it works why are they going to sell it?" Mansukhani said."

But Hirsh says that's not always the case.

Many of the tech fashion victims are happy to part with their functioning old stuff in order to make room for the new technology.

Between smartphones, cell phone, iPods and computers, Keith MacKinnon and his family are fully loaded with many tech generations.

"All of us have iPods ... but the kids have the latest and greatest. My wife and I have the older generation."

The older versions of the iPods and cell phones are fine, but his tech-savvy teens want more than just utility from their gadgets.

All of their stuff is "still useable but it didn't have a colour screen so the new one has a bigger hard drive and a bigger screen ... essentially music-wise it still does that same thing."

And if the latest tech accessory must be experienced before the next birthday or Christmas, MacKinnon said his teens aren't afraid of funding their own high-tech habits.

When the new iPod nano became available, MacKinnon's 14-year-old daughter wanted one so she saved her earnings from her summer job to pay for it.

"That was her goal. To raise enough money to go get herself a nano.

And while other gadgets have gone through the MacKinnons wash cycle and had to be retired, their daughter's nano hasn't made it to the laundry, yet.