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.
I’m on a 3 year cycle with the iPhone, now. Last one I held on to for 3 years and the 15 Plus I have now is going to be in use until, at least, the iPhone 18.
I don’t really give a shit about the impact on the economy.
I guess I’m on a 6 year cycle. And I’m currently 4 years in on my current phone.
I’ve been at 5-7 years for technology cycles since the 1990s, so I’m probably not impacting the economy that much.
So… is the economy in a bubble, or do we need more people in the economy? Because we don’t need people buying the same thing every two years.