Last month, late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel took an iPhone to the streets of Los Angeles for a little sociological experiment.

"The new iPhone 5 just came out today, and we wanted to know if you'll take a look at it and tell us how it compares to the last iPhone," Kimmell asked individual passersby.

After holding and playing with the phone, the majority of interviewees said the phone was lighter and faster-clearly an improvement. What they didn't know was that the iPhone 5 wouldn't be released for a few more days. They were actually holding an iPhone 4S.

Despite criticisms that the iPhone 5 didn't make major advances over its predecessor, consumers flocked to buy it. Last week, Verizon announced that its iPhone sales increased by 15 percent from the prior quarter. Samsung also experienced an increase in its phone upgrade sales, according to CNET. The same week that Apple released the iPhone 5, Samsung's sales for its latest smartphone, the Galaxy S3, increased by 15 percent.

Even when the gadgets they have still work, consumers crave the latest devices as soon as they come out.

Tess Griesedieck, a freshman at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, was due for an upgrade when Apple released the iPhone 5. Griesedieck said she upgraded because Apple has been generally reliable and, well, it was the newest version.

Chadwick McDowell, a freshman at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. had more reservations about choosing to upgrade: "I wasn't completely sold on it at first," he said. But after he felt the iPhone 5 in his hands, he knew he had to have it.

As Kimmell's experiment demonstrated, consumers often are content to upgrade for even the smallest improvements--a phenomenon that many people attribute to Apple's advertising acumen.

Technology marketing is often designed to generate "that need to own," said Ananda Mitra, professor of communications at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. Technology companies know that consumers have a desire to keep up with their peers. Although the tools themselves are attractive, the desire to have the latest and greatest often drives technology purchases, Mitra said.

But Julia Collins, a freshman at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla. said she doesn't plan to buy an iPhone 5. Collins upgraded to an iPhone 4S this summer and is content with her new phone. But, if she could upgrade today for free, it's a no-brainer: "I mean it's faster than the one I have for sure."

Kerri Metz, a junior at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. said she will upgrade from the iPhone 3 as soon as she can. Although she looks forward to a new phone, Metz said she recognizes that the desire to upgrade is unsustainable.

"We don't just use stuff till it no longer functions," she said. "We wait two years and then get the new thing."

Companies have done a good job convincing consumers that if something isn't the latest, it's not the best, even though that's not always the case, Metz said.

But in general, Mitra thinks students' eagerness to have the latest technology is positive: "Students today, much like young people in previous generations, tend to be early adopters of new technologies because there is a certain innate curiosity of the young as well as the willingness to try out new things."

Students' relationship with technology begins with experimentation. They accept or reject new tools based on whether or not they fulfill the promise of positively changing everyday life, he said: "In the end, youngsters today are quite savvy about both tools and their function and they will embrace tools that perform a function elegantly and efficiently."