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.
My phone is 5 years old and I’m not giving it up until it’s bricked at this point. Shit is just too expensive to upgrade anymore.
Fuck the economy.
I think the economy has bigger problems than you not being a good little consumer.
Oh, look, another example of “competition” ruining another feat of humanity
People will loosen the purse strings once Trump is gone and stability resumes. If they have any money left after Trump is gone.
device hoarding
That is not what this is called.
Consumers are being Anticapitalist! This is not a recession! We didn’t fire half the country for people to spend less!! Think about our growing profits!!
We should make devices lower quality to increase profits! More failures!
My phone can fuck right off. Other than GPS and music…its really not as valuable as I may have once thought
“A population with skyrocketing costs of living and stagnant wages cutting unnecessary spending, and that’s a problem”
29 months is long? What good for “the economy”? New phone every year?
I kept my last phone (pixel 3A) for 6 years. Only got rid of it when it finally stopped charging.
18 months was the figure I once read somewhere. Absolutely ridiculous.
Now I want to hold my devices longer so the economy destroys even faster
Maybe “the economy” should give some more money back to working class people, ya dingdongs
The consequence of squeezing every last cent from people
Fuck the economy. It can eat my ass.
Also with moore’s law’s death, why the fuck would anybody believe this productivity bullshit? Any device from 5 years ago can do what a device today can.
One more thing, wtf is this entitlement from electronics importers. Apple, google, samsung, etc can all fuck off until they move manufacturing back to north america.
Good. If the economy is designed to only survive with constant spending then fuck it
This is the new avocado toast
