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.
I got a new phone about a week ago. My old one was wildly overpowered for my use case, but … I accidentally sat on it briefly, and the screen was never the same. I went from a Pixel 6 Pro to a 9a, and … yeah, the screen seemed slightly smaller for a couple of days, but otherwise, it’s faster than a device twice the price in 2021.
As with computers, we’ve hit “good enough” with phones for the most part. If you know why you need GPU cycles, that of course is another story, but for basic compute, we’ve nailed it. Hell, I’d still be running my i7-3770K – a processor I bought in 2012 – had my motherboard not died.
Things get shitty in terms of margins at the top of any technological S-curve.
I spent $500 on a phone that will get nearly seven years of updates, as I didn’t buy it release day. Assuming I don’t sit on it, that’s a remaining 78 months at $6.41/month. My service is $15/month.
There’s no money here anymore.