The average American now holds onto their smartphone for 29 months, according to a recent survey by Reviews.org, and that cycle is getting longer. The average was around 22 months in 2016.
While squeezing as much life out of your device as possible may save money in the short run, especially amid widespread fears about the strength of the consumer and job market, it might cost the economy in the long run, especially when device hoarding occurs at the level of corporations.
Research released by the Federal Reserve last month concludes that each additional year companies delay upgrading equipment results in a productivity decline of about one-third of a percent, with investment patterns accounting for approximately 55% of productivity gaps between advanced economies. The good news: businesses in the U.S. are generally quicker to reinvest in replacing aging equipment. The Federal Reserve report shows that if European productivity had matched U.S. investment patterns starting in 2000, the productivity gap between the U.S and European economic heavyweights would have been reduced by 29 percent for the U.K., 35 percent for France, and 101% for Germany.
Only two years? Seriously?
Why? It’s not the early days of Android anymore, even 5-year-old devices still get updates these days. How are people affording to drop $1K on a new phone every two years? Or maybe the problem is that they’re buying shitty cheap low-end phones that were obsolete out of the box. If you buy a good flagship, it’ll last you many years.
They’re getting trade-in value for their old phone, hiding part of the remainder in a carrier contract, and getting loans for the rest. It’s only $1k if you’re one of those weirdos who likes to own things.
I had my phone for 8 years until one day it bricked. That’s the only reason i got a new one about a year ago. My wife is coming up on the two year mark and is asking for a new one and i have to keep reminding her that hers is fine.
The Galaxy S3 was the best phone they ever made. SD card, removable battery, built in IR blaster… it pains me that I can’t still use it.
“The economy” can once again be replaced with “rich people’s yacht money”
Oh I’m sorry AI can’t buy devices, pay us bitches
Where’s that cartoon about financial news stories making much more sense if you replace the words “the economy” with “rich people’s boat money”?
This sounds a lot like something Richard Denniss would say. He wrote a book named Econobabble that explains a lot of this sort of thing.
Fuck this shit. Pay us more.
Proper headline: Economy sucks, inflation is higher than ever, so people have to hold onto their devices longer.
But you guys not buying new phones is reducing productivity by a third of a percent! Think of the potential losses!
Maybe the economy shouldn’t be so dependent upon disposable devices.
Yeah, my reaction was less about economics and more wondering why this wouldn’t be celebrated.
Only 29 months?! That’s a bit wasteful unless it’s being handed down…
Yeah. I’ve used two phones over the last 11 years, no need to waste money on getting the newest one every couple of years.
Perhaps it’s all the cell carriers moving from 24 month device payment plans to 36 month terms. Flagship devices have become so costly that to keep the monthly device payment plan price the same the term needed to be extended.
Holy shit keeping a device longer than 2 years is “device hoarding” now? Thats fucking nuts.
How do you invest so much money in a device like that and not make it last? I’ve got one phone I use for work calls thats 10 years old. People are still shocked I dont even have a case on it.
This is blaming consumers for companies not doing a better job at planned obsolescence.
My last phone up until a couple months ago was from 2017, apparently I am just a mega hoarder. Don’t look at the pile of miscellaneous bits of tech, the Omnisiah demands I collect the shinnies.
Honestly, if I could just upgrade the CPU and replace the battery every once in a while, is still be using a Note 3 or nexus 5. Those first few generations of notes were awesome.
When every single business is slowly getting to the point where they need you to be a consumer whore just to survive, yes.
…hands up anyone using laptops or desktops older than 15 years?.. …right here, bitches…lol…
I got laptops from 2008 and 2013, still work just fine 😁
Yup got that too. Flipped it to Bazzite, and setting up an old laptop on Mint now too.
It’s because economists haven’t got the memo yet that informs them that smartphones have been recategorized as, “durable goods”.
Maybe don’t base the economy on e-waste?
What kind of twatwaffle writes this crap. Fuck your planned obsolescence.
…i believe only one country has “planned obsolescence” as an illegal business practice…
Bhutan?
After a quick search, it seems to be France. I wouldn’t have guessed that in a thousand years, judging their car industry…
Stellantis in shambles, or at least their manufacturing quality is
Lol shots fired.
Accurate, correct shots…
Good old French engineering. Calculations say we need at least a 9mm bolt to hold on this widget, every other bolt on the car is 10mm or 16mm. 9mm bolt it is.
There’s something weirdly seductive about French cars though, they somehow manage to be extremely good at some specific niche feature and look nice and be just quality enough that you seem to talk yourself round to them.
Why are we always expected to change our behavior to benefit the economy? I need to buy more? The economy is all made up why can’t it change to meet the needs of the people?
