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.
Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it's costing the economy
Submitted 21 hours ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to technology@beehaw.org
http://cnbc.com/2025/11/23/how-device-hoarding-by-americans-is-costing-economy.html
Comments
jherazob@beehaw.org 4 hours ago
gerryflap@feddit.nl 7 hours ago
The person who wrote this must be absolutely insane. How I’d it a bad thing for the world that people are holding on to their devices? Less e-waste and people don’t spend impulsively. It’s also very logical: smartphones reached a plateau and people aren’t exactly swimming in money with the rising price of everything.
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 6 hours ago
The person is writing from a business prospective. If people are replacing their phones less often, it means that fewer phones are being purchased each year. If your company makes phones, that means adjusting to a shrinking market no matter what your company does.
SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 17 hours ago
Oh look, it’s the consumers who threaten the economy, not the fucking ghouls in the C suite, killing jobs and cutting wages. How dare they not having enough money? How DARE they?
its_me_xiphos@beehaw.org 8 hours ago
I am not an economist. I am not an expert on anything consumer. It is, however, plainly obvious that companies are trying to squeeze blood from a stone at this point. They can’t make money anymore with pay to own and innovation like they used to for a variety of reasons. From greed to enshitification. If you look at it with a different view, everyone is poorer because they are greedy, they’ve ruined everyone’s lives but must make numbers go up. So they find new and terrifying ways of screwing you over for diminishing returns. Like this. Relying on turnover sales and nothing else.
Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 hours ago
Oh no, we’re being so selfish. Why not buy a 10% performance upgrade every two years for $1000 while wages stagnate? Oh, and carriers don’t subsidize the cost at all anymore. They call it “free” then lock you into their most expensive plan so you spend thousands more on the plan than if you could have afforded to just buy the phone outright.
Fuck this out of touch reporting.
cabbage@piefed.social 21 hours ago
It’s all over the place. In the middle of the article they suddenly talk about how software updates, modularity and repairability is important so that old devices can be made to keep up with contemporary demands, blaming the fact that this is an issue on big tech.
Then again, other parts are completely nuts.
Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 hours ago
Noticing some em dashes in there, so at least some of this is AI.
The parts about corporate infrastructure sound like a c suite dipshit trying to sound like they know what they’re talking about.
“Our networks run slower because we have to be compatible with older devices!”
No, Judith, your IT department just keeps 2.4ghz wifi available for the old devices while also running 5ghz. Those devices stay slow, but it doesn’t impact anyone else.
“Back in 2010, 100Mb internet was the fastest! No one could imagine gigabit becoming widely available! Stuff needs to be upgraded to handle it!” Judy, tons of businesses were running gigabit in 2010, and common network gear has had gigabit ports for years. You have no idea what you’re talking about.
dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 18 hours ago
Hold on, you can simply tack on 10-50 dollars to your cell plan and get a “free” upgrade every year instead!
teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 13 hours ago
While it may seem to be a smart money move, it can result in a costly productivity and innovation lag for the economy.
For the love of god! Won’t somebody think of the economy?!
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 9 hours ago
29 months is too long??? I consider that the absolutely minimum.
If my device doesn’t last at least 36 months I look for a new company. I aim for at least 48 months.
I refuse to buy Samsung or Google devices anymore, since they definitely did not meet my 36 month criteria. They didn’t even make it to 24. Google did at first with my Nexus 4 and I loved it but they shit the bed real quick after that.
its_me_xiphos@beehaw.org 8 hours ago
I bought an older Samsung and only usenitnfor doom scrolling and podcasts. Its fine stripped down to nothingness. My.next purchase will be an older Pixel so I can run GraphineOS. I’m hopeful that like my Linux experience, buying old laptops and kicking windows to the curb in favor of Linux buys you tons of time and product life.
GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 21 hours ago
Jesus Christ what a dumb take. But at least they didn’t say that millennials are killing the cell phone industry. I guess that doesn’t make for good clickbait anymore.
Reminds me if the parable of the broken window, in which French economist Frédéric Bastiat explains the painfully-obvious truth breaking windows is generally a bad thing, even though it drums up business for the glass maker.
But if, on the other hand, you come to the conclusion, as is too often the case, that it is a good thing to break windows, that it causes money to circulate, and that the encouragement of industry in general will be the result of it, you will oblige me to call out, “Stop there! Your theory is confined to that which is seen; it takes no account of that which is not seen.”
It is not seen that as our shopkeeper has spent six francs upon one thing, he cannot spend them upon another. It is not seen that if he had not had a window to replace, he would, perhaps, have replaced his old shoes, or added another book to his library. In short, he would have employed his six francs in some way, which this accident has prevented.
TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 18 hours ago
The oldest millennials are in their 40s. They've moved on to talking shit about zoomers. It's kind of weird seeing everything repeat itself like that as I get older.
SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 7 hours ago
Nah, I’m collecting recipes for billionaire bacon.
irotsoma@piefed.blahaj.zone 19 hours ago
“Companies aren’t innovating anymore and it’s costing the economy” is what it should say. When late stage capitalism leads to consolidation and cost cutting, stock buybacks, and other short term profit when competition is no longer necessary, that’s what kills the economy. That’s why monopolies and anticompetitive behaviors are bad.
SparroHawc@lemmy.zip 15 hours ago
Don’t forget aggressive rent-seeking behavior.
scroll_responsibly@lemmy.sdf.org 14 hours ago
Good.
MangioneDontMiss@feddit.nl 6 hours ago
kill the job market, ramp up inflation… who could have ever seen this coming.
Baguette@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 hours ago
Oh my bad, I need to consume more to increase shareholder value. Almost forgot
Megaman_EXE@beehaw.org 16 hours ago
Why would that hurt the economy? If you want people to spend money, make things affordable and useful. They make things shittier and more expensive and then wonder why people aren’t buying
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 12 hours ago
Whoa, whoa, whoa … expecting utility out of a product? That’s socialism!
alyaza@beehaw.org 21 hours ago
please continue to “device hoard” folks
Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 16 hours ago
Kevin Williams, the author of this article is a very special breed of stupid.
its_me_xiphos@beehaw.org 7 hours ago
Kevin, if thats even a real person at this point in media, is just pushing stories and discourse aligned with corporate speak. Let’s consider it less stupid and more complicit, which I argue, is even worse.
spit_evil_olive_tips@beehaw.org 14 hours ago
yeah…his previous article just before this one was “Americans are heating their homes with bitcoin this winter”
you’re a couple years late to that hype cycle, Kevin.
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 12 hours ago
I dislike having the comma of direct address thrown at me. At least close the aside!
TehPers@beehaw.org 2 hours ago
Nah they’re referring to a different Kevin Williams.
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 hours ago
29 months is a long time?
I’ve had this one since 2019
runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 hours ago
My wife finally upgraded after 5 years, and I’m on year 4 of my Pixel 6 and its still going strong, will probably go another 1-2 years with it.
PonyOfWar@pawb.social 21 hours ago
At this point my phone from 2022 is way overpowered for every use case I have for it. So why upgrade? It was a bit different years ago, when new phones actually did exciting new things older phones couldn’t do. But now the technology has pretty much matured, and upgrades are incremental at best.
ByteSorcerer@beehaw.org 15 hours ago
I am typing this on a 5 year old Android phone. It has 128GB of memory and 8GB of RAM, very decent cameras, a beautiful OLED screen and a processor that is more than fast enough for everything I do with it. And even now the battery still lasts two days with normal use. It cost me about €300 at the time.
Unfortunately the Android version is getting so far behind that some apps are starting to get a few issues, so I have been checking out some black Friday deals for new phones, but they look very disappointing.
In the current market it seems like I’d have to pay about €500 to effectively just get a side-grade. All €300 offerings look like just a straight up downgrade in any way apart from the more recent android version.
So I think I’ll hold on to this one a while longer. Hardware-wise it’s still in perfect condition, and if software support really becomes an issue then perhaps I’ll try out a custom ROM.
User79185@discuss.tchncs.de 20 hours ago
capitalist propaganda
lvxferre@mander.xyz 21 hours ago
This is almost a textbook example of the broken window fallacy.
yessikg@fedia.io 21 hours ago
That's not even 3 years, gotta get those rookie numbers up
Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 20 hours ago
Fr, my phone was over 3x as old when I traded it in, and it wasn’t even broken. I just knew I had to replace it in the next 4 years and didn’t want to get hit with tariffs.
2 years is a good start for people who trade in annually, though. Gotta start somewhere!
Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de 17 hours ago
I’m on a 4 year old iPhone SE 🫡
thesmokingman@programming.dev 14 hours ago
The big given example was gigabit throughput. Most consumers in the US, businesses included, don’t have access to internet infrastructure capable of multigig because of regulatory capture. Those that do are already using multigig hardware which, unsurprisingly, hasn’t really changed much.
carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 hours ago
have had my phone for close to 5 years now. it could use a battery replacement, but other than that it’s perfectly fine, so im gonna keep it for as long as i can
and if that makes tim cook cry… so be it lol
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 20 hours ago
I don’t like to comment twice, but holy fuck … what the hell did I just read?
The framing here puts the Louvre to shame (they’ve currently got their own problems). Perhaps the purest perversion of capitalism is the idea that sufficient is never enough.
Look: Phones are commodities at this point. You only need a new one when the old one breaks. You don’t call a plumber to replace your pipes every two years; it’s generally because something shitty happens. Sometimes literally.
This feels like the pendulum swinging back, to the alarm of capital. I’m old enough to remember appliances being expected to last 20 years. Fridge, oven, TV, washer and dryer: All were expected to be single-time replacements over the course of a 30-year mortgage.
Hence growing up with a fridge in almond and a Kenmore set of laundry machines in mustard yellow. And a console Sony TV that made it through my entire console gaming time.
Talaraine@fedia.io 19 hours ago
Costing the economy..... hahahahahaha
twinnie@feddit.uk 19 hours ago
What a load of bullshit. Maybe I misread it but it says that German companies would be 101% more productive if they bought newer laptops and phones (American ones no doubt). They also claim that businesses are trying to use old hardware for modern workloads. Apparently a six year old laptop can’t handle Outlook and Word.
4am@lemmy.zip 18 hours ago
To be fair, current laptops don’t handle Outlook and Word very well.
It’s probably not the hardware that is the issue.
SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 17 hours ago
You can’t polish a turd ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 18 hours ago
It genuinely floors me that few medium and large-sized companies don’t use Linux for desktops. You can customize gnome or KDE to work very similarly to windows from a UI/UX perspective, especially with the number of web based apps companies rely on. Windows and Office might start sucking less if they had real competition.
sanzky@beehaw.org 17 hours ago
MDM and support costs.
ByteSorcerer@beehaw.org 16 hours ago
The main reason is tech debt and proprietary software. Most companies have decades of software infrastructure all built on Microsoft based systems. Transitioning all that stuff to Linux is a massive investment, especially taking into account the downtime it’ll cause combined with the temporary decrease in productivity when everyone has to get trained and build up experience with the new platform.
And then you have to deal with proprietary software. A lot of niche corporate or industrial hardware only supports Windows. And you probably have to regularly interact with customers who use Windows and share files with you that can only be opened in Windows only proprietary software.
Linux also frequently struggles with a lot of weird driver issues and other weird quirks, causing an increased burden on the IT department.
Basically you’re looking at a massive investment in the short term, for significantly reduced productivity in the long run. And all that mostly to save a bit of hardware costs, which are only a fraction of the operating costs for most companies. Just sticking with Windows ends up being the more economical choice for most companies.
4am@lemmy.zip 18 hours ago
There is a lot of specialized shit that Excel does that calc isn’t up to par on.
You also can’t easily cripple calc with group policy (no pesky macros or external connections, you little babies! Copy and paste or get dead)
Rooskie91@discuss.online 20 hours ago
Yeah, well, what has the economy done for me lately?
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 12 hours ago
Most likely fucked you?
cheeseburger@piefed.ca 17 hours ago
lol nice economy
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 11 hours ago
Deyis@beehaw.org 18 hours ago
Think about how many additional phones you could buy each year if you cancelled your Netflix subscription and didn’t eat as much avocado on toast.
Sidhean@piefed.social 18 hours ago
DAE millenials are killing the capitalism industry?
sirico@feddit.uk 21 hours ago
People are returning to normal device lifecycles and the greed can’t cope