It depends, really.
For a long while I didn't care what kind of phone I have, and for the most part I don't care all that much now either. Sure, having a smart phone now, I do enjoy that I can access facebook and such on the go, and that I can look up information I need wherever I am, like an address, phone number, etc. However I do miss the old fashined texting. I used to be able to write really quickly and mostly without mistakes - now I constantly miss the keys I want and I have to slow down my writing pace so that I catch them as I make them.
If a gadget potentially is useful to me, then I'm all for it. It doesn't have to be the latest model, though, and I don't tend to update until I really need to. I've had my ipod touch for years, same with my kindle keyboard - and I have no plans to replace either. My ipad is new, but when I bought it I chose the older, cheaper model rather than the newer one, because I wasn't looking for the very latest stuff, just something good enough for the way I intend to use it.
I probably change laptop more often than the regular joe (not really, really often, more like every 3-4 years or so), but that is mostly due to me needing more ram for my vidding to run more smoothly and such - and I really hope they will move on to the next windows before I need to upgrade next time, cause there's no way I'm getting Win8.
With gaming I'm actually more keen on retro now-a-days than the newer stuff.