Every year, tech reviewers position the latest chip as much better than the old one, and the same thing happens next year, and the next. The Snapdragon 8 Elite was better than the Gen 3, which was better than the Gen 2, and so on.
If the “flagship” chips are so good, why not just stop to save cost? Why upgrade the chipset every year with minimal gains?
If everyone stuck with the same generation of chip, smartphones could be cheaper (good for consumers) OR profit margins could be increased (good for companies). Or maybe a mix of both.
What drives the yearly update in chips? AI maybe?
Most OEMs like to say that they have the very best. And unfortunately, software just keeps bloating, making it more useful to have a higher end chip.
However, this dynamic has changed somewhat in recent years as the price of flagship SoCs has skyrocketed by ~4x in 5 years. More high-end phones are releasing with not quite the best chip, like the base iPhone, the Pixel, and the Galaxy S25/S25+ (due to Exynos).