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Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it’s costing the economy

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.

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www.cnbc.com /2025/11/23/how-device-hoarding-by-americans-is-costing-economy.html

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Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it's costing the economy

www.cnbc.com /2025/11/23/how-device-hoarding-by-americans-is-costing-economy.html

24 11

122 comments

The idea, that keeping a device for more than two years is "short term" thinking that could doom the economy, is a pretty damning indictment on the state of your economy.
- More to the point that news item came from CNBC, itself a company that is 100% advertiser-supported.
  Of course they're going to claim that people not buying is the doom of the economy.
  Their whole existence is tied to hyperconsumption, which, is becoming evident to even the marginally aware, of being no longer viable in the long run.
  Say after me: "Too bad, so sad.."
  
  NBC is owned by Comcast, who also owns Xfinity and invests in T-Mobile. At some point there is going to be just 3 companies running everything and the courts they own will say they aren't monopolies
- And lifestyle/culture.

Jesus Christ, when did choosing not to throw away a perfectly good device become "device hoarding"?
- Gotta love American capitalist propaganda.
- the framing on it lmao
  "corporation device hoarding"
  you mean businesses keeping devices that they KNOW work instead of changing to devices with bullshit new issues created so more of your data can be harvested and you can be advertised to more?
  
  I've worked at large (5k+ workers) companies that were running Windows XP well into the late 2010's, with matching hardware. That was too extreme (goddamn ie6).
  But this article makes me sick. If the economy needs people to throw away perfectly usable goods and buy new ones, the problem isn't the people, it's the fucking economy. It's time to take a step back and rethink the system, because it's gonna implode.

Companies act like the general population simply OWES them business. We do not.
On that note, please refuse to participate in Black Friday and keep your Christmas low key and sentimental.
- That’s my plan. Primarily food and handmade/carefully picked gifts rather than lavish this year.
  Also wtf? How is 2 years “a long time” to hold onto an expensive machine? Mine have been at least 4-5 years between buys. Products are supposed to last.
- Specifically, Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, boycott Target, Amazon (including Whole Foods), and Home Depot even harder than usual: https://weaintbuyingit.com/
  
  I buy my upgrades used on ebay. Check your seller before buying, of course, but that does mean more money in the pockets of people who are trying to get rid of unneeded stuff.
  
  They think Jeff Bezos is still the CEO of Amazon. Not very well-informed ...

"Americans are producing less e-waste and getting more value out of their purchases, and this is bad for rich people!"

Anyone who writes a headline like this should be chained to a bale of ewaste and thrown into the ocean.
- Ship them in a container to Ghana to be "recycled" in a bonfire with the rest of the ewaste

Continuing to use something that still works is Hoarding? The shear fucking gall. They're literally having to misuse the word "hoard" because they couldn't think of a word for "sticking with something that works" with negative enough connotations.
- I know, right? That ridiculous usage of the word hoarding stuck out to me as well. While I know words can have different meanings in different contexts, I find it confounding that anybody would think that word applies to a person who is perfectly happy with their fully functional 2+ year old device and therefore does not compelled to buy a new replacement.

Oh no not the economy 😭😔
- It's costing productivity..
  Forget the damage to the planet that consumerism causes
  Sociedad de consumo y obsolescencia programada

Not constantly throwing away things that are still good is "device hoarding" now? Strong "quiet quitting" vibes there.

The economy can go fuck itself. I'd rather have a society and an ecology.

29 months
squeezing as much life out of your device as possible
Dude, my average phone age is 7 years. I'm now on my 3rd since smartphones exist.
What do US people do with their phones? Even my dad (a farmer) has them longer and he loses them sometimes in the field or drives them over.
- Yank here. I dunno what these fucks are complaining about. All my phones have either been cheap, or refurbished secondhand. Hell, I even learned how to fix my own so I could make them last as long as possible. And when the OS gets too slow, I start throwing out old apps like I'm bailing a leaky ship. My average phone's lifetime is nearly five years. My laptop? Nearly ten.
  You know what this smells like? Smells like rich people complaining about poor people being pragmatic and sensible. "Decreasing productivity by 1/3 of a percentage point." Spoiled little prince can eat my entire ass.
- This. I'm just upgrading my galaxy s9 that was released in feb 2018. Although many parts of it are starting to die (e.g. screen burn in, a dew cracks), it's only because my service provider is killing it off because it doesn't support VOLTE (and I refuse to use the default Samsung OS).
  Upgrading to a fairphone. You better believe that's gonna last another 7 years.
- Mine's lower, due to having one gotten stolen and another one crushed. My current one is five years old. According to the industry, we both are perverts or freaks that need to be eliminated.
- Right? My current one is from 2019 and I don't see a reason to buy a new one.
- I'd be using an S8 if I could
  
  still fucking angry i can't use a Sony xzc2 in the US since 3G shutdown (it HAS LTE capability and network operators refuse to support it)
- I have no idea.
  Technically I’m here because I replace phones every 2-3 years, but it’s so I can give my teens good phones. I can’t afford to replace four phones at once so this lets me replace two. We keep phones in the family, in use, for a much more reasonable 5-6 years
- I'm only somewhat worse since early 2000s Windows phones were kinda trash and I broke my first iPhone. But after that, I run them until they start having trouble doing common things. I went from an iPhone 6 to a Pixel 6 which I still am using fine.

Oh no! Not the economy 😭
- Someone please think of the shareholders!!!

Me, reading this on my 86 month old phone and feeling like the left's greatest hero for dealing such a mighty blow to capitalism.
- Thank you for your service, comrade.

29 months is "as much as possible"? My phone is from 2016 and it works fine!
- That impressive really
  And i boast about my 2019 phone that still works fine.

Fuck the economy.

Who is only getting 29 months out of a smart phone? What are you doing?
- I work outdoors in all weathers, in and out of vehicles and answering calls all day. 12 months is a good lifespan for one of my phones.
  That being said I buy the cheapest phone samsung make every time. I can buy 10 of them for the price of a flagship S series.
- There are the "free" upgrades with the phone company.
  I saved my old Samsung so long that it became "worthless" for trade in value. So then I did need to buy a new phone. If I had traded it then I would not have any monthly bill for the hardware.
  It literally cost me more in the long-term to not trade in at 24 months.
  Also my work/corporate device must always be in the latest Android so they pay for upgrades every 2 years. It is mandatory for us to upgrade. I am sure we are not the only company doing this

Wait why the f are the consumers being blamed for the economy?
- To be fair, the consumers are the economy. Which is why it's so vital to provide them with the means to consume.
  
  We "are" the economy and yet they aren't.
  We keep being told " The economy is strong" and they ain't talking about you, or me, or anyone either of us have ever met.
  
  Uh.. Aren't the sellers also like... Half of it?
- Because consumers that have unspent money are WORSE THAN HITLER^[source: economists], as all that unspent money is not making line go up!
  
  Maybe the billionaires should start throwing their money around a little more...

device hoarding
Get the fuck out of here.

It might be bad for the economy, but it's better for the environment, for the amount of money available for rent, food, insurance, emergencies...

This whole thing reads like satire.
And not like the whole semiconductor industry is one of the most environmentally toxic ones. Better keep your phone/computer as long as possible.

Who the fuck decided to predicate the economy on a <2-year upgrade cycle for electronics?! Tim Apple is that you?

My $1000 piece of electronics lasted 2 years! YAYYYY!!!!
- That comes out to $1.37 a day. I definitely think hardware should last way longer than that, and I even have computers running at my house that are over 12 years old, but $1.37 a day for something that most people use as much as their phone is not a bad deal. In this economy, that's like half of a gas station soft drink, or like 10 miles worth of gas.
  Edit: Or 2 chicken McNuggets.
  
  Yeah it took me a gpfew years to hop on the smartphone bandwagon because they seemed so expensive for something as unnecessary as a phone. Then I did the same math, considered how much I actually use it, even just for insipid games. The cost per use or per minute use, or for functionality is pretty reasonable, especially as phones get more capable.
  Ironically, it’s my computer that fails that math, especially as phones take over more functionality we used to need computers for

No you fucking dolt, it is saving the economy a ton of money to spend on other things.
- The same kind of people who think we literally sent millions of money to the moon.
  
  I want a piece of that moon-money!

There is no need to upgrade devices every two years ago, which used to be the norm. A decade or more ago, each new generation of phone was a huge leap forward. Today, not so much. Maybe a marginally better camera or a touch more battery life, but nothing earth shattering, and the camera and battery life on my "ancient" Pixel 6 Pro are more than adequate for my needs. I'll probably upgrade in the next year or so, to a used Pixel 9, because the price of them used has plummeted since the release of the Pixel 10, and the Pixel 6 is nearing the end of its support by GrapheneOS.
- I would be more inclined to get a new device if they didn't make the user experience worse every year
  that's the biggest factor for me now instead of cost, tbh

The issue isn't money, it's the complete and utter lack of innovation on the devices being sold.
Quality is another issue. I was forced to buy a new phone, and ended up with a OnePlus. The software is so broken that I can no longer use my launcher I've used for a decade now. The home button glitches out when I do.

Good.

It's costing whose economy? Every purchase that anyone makes costs them more than it should, with that "more" going directly into the pockets of wealthy owners who provide little or no value. When people purchase less, they are primarily hurting those wealthy owners.

If the economy depends in us buying new phones every two years, then maybe the economy wasn't as strong as we thought it was.

The fuck it is

Reduce the amount of disposable income across the board, then start moaning that people arent buying shit they dont need as much... The utter fucking state of these people.

Zero people really need a new phone every two years, that's crazy. This economy and sadly a lot of jobs are based on some wild idea of endless consumption which is just not sustainable, especially when your customer base is getting poorer by the day.

"cost the economy" when your economy is based on consumerism then not buying as fast destroys the economy.

Ive had my phone for upwards of 4 years now, and I plan on keeping it for at least another 4 unless something tragic happens. Oops sorry I guess I can't afford food this week kids, those billionaires and investors might lose money so I have to go get a new phone

I was going to make a joke about needing to buy a $1000 iphone every 6 months to save the economy, but then I went to the apple site to make sure I wasn’t being hyperbolic…
Christ on a fucking cracker! the latest iPhone can cost up to $3,800 in my local currency! Just fucking blow my brains out, the world is cooked. Bury me with my 5 year old phone, it’s still got a few years left in it I reckon.

The law of diminishing returns has entered the chat.
My internet service provider, for example, offered 500 MBPS and recently came out with a plan that was $20 per month cheaper and only offered 100 MBPS and I jumped on it as fast as I possibly could because I don't need 500 MBPS ever.

Americans are increasingly opting for reusable cups. This is costing the plastic cup industry billions.
And how exactly is this bad?
Spending less money on stupid stuff isn't hurting the economy, for fuck's sake.
The exact same applies to smartphones.

I brought my s24 exactly because it's got 7yrs of updates. I suspect it'll need a new battery around 4yrs. If I'm lucky, that will let me hold out until Linux phones are more polished
- Ditto, and mainly for the stated continuing security updates, my old note 8 is still working and in fine condition.
- I'm on an S10 right now, it still runs... dafuq I need a new phone for? So it'll fit in my pocket even worse.

The only useful thing for new phones would be if there was easily discoverable good new games to buy with real pretty graphics. Instead the stores are adware platforms and phone cameras have been pretty good enough for a decade. Splitting hairs these days for improvements

Many workers report that aging devices stifle productivity, but like a favorite pair of shoes or an old sweater, they don’t want to give them up to learn the intricacies of a new device (which they’ll learn and then have to replace with another). Familiarity can trump productivity for many workers.
So first off I'm glad they mentioned this. However it's frustrating to see the first quote, "last month concludes that each additional year companies delay upgrading equipment results in a productivity decline of about one-third of a percent" which feels like real numbers versus the section I quoted which feel like vibes.
There is a cost in doing something and a cost in not doing something. Sometimes doing nothing is the best course of action.
(Now if getting a new device is a huge cost you should investigate where you can improve that process.)

The economy can burn

Good. Better for your pocketbook, better for yourself, and better for the world.
I would like to note that the difference in relative purchases of technology investments between consumer and business markets will make comparison a little less than easy.
That and certain social demographics within the information technology world present a bleed through of practices in spending habits and thus should not be included.

Noooooo the economy 😭😭😭

Oh no not the economy!

29 months is a lot shorter than I thought the average person switches phones. I’m still sticking with my IPhone X.

I'm still using a Galaxy S9+ from 2018! And yes, I still get over a day's worth of battery life with the original battery.
- I had to get replace mine last year after I tossed it on the ground accidentally and the screen completely broke. other than the slight slowdown in performance, it was fine, even with all the broken glass on the front and back

"device hoarding" Fuck off

NO, it's costing some companies. The economy benefits from cutting out waste. It just so happens that the stock market and "the economy" are not synonyms.

The section about buying new phones and the section about company investment appear to have nothing to do with one another.
The report by the Fed they cite is concerned with estimating the effect of capital reinvestment productivity gains by the firm.
Just breezing through the report it looks like the Fed is trying to explain differences in GDP between economies as a consequence of capital reinvestment. When firms buy new equipment, which could include IT equipment but also could include things like robots, backhoes, new looms, or any other piece of equipment a firm uses to produce goods or services, they should be more productive because their equipment has newer technology in it. The Fed reasons that if two major economies differ in GDP growth one of the potential explanations might be the rate of capital reinvestment firms in those economies engage in because newer equipment usually increases productivity. So more frequent investments in capital should yield faster growth in GDP. They present evidence in favor of that argument.
I don't know how reasonable their conclusion is because I am not too familiar with their measurements which are not direct measures of capital investment and don't really know enough about how GDP changes over time to know if this is a good explanation. It is clear, however, that the Fed is not arguing that consumers need to keep buying new phones every year or the economy will collapse or even be harmed. That is not even remotely what the report is about.

You look at the headlines of what’s new every year, realize it’s a nothingburger and say “meh maybe next year if there’s something interesting”. It’s been going for a few years for me, my last phone broke because I mishandled it, bought iPhone 13 and don’t see myself replacing for at least 2-3 years. I’ll replace the battery soon because it doesn’t hold a charge that well anymore but that’s about it really. Does everything else very good

I'll get a new cell phone when I find one that has feature parity with my current one.

Im on an iPhone 12 Pro Max(2020). That must make me above average. Yay!
- I got one year older.

122 comments