If you’re holding onto an aging printer or a cracked smartphone for longer than expected, you’re not alone.
Heather Mitchell, 69, is retired and lives in Tucson, Arizona, and is happy with her cell phone, even though it’s old by smartphone standards.
“My Samsung Galaxy A71 is six years old, and it’s held up surprisingly well for a jalopy. It’s had and still has problems, but the problems are minor,” Mitchell said. “I love my Samsung phone, but I can’t afford a new phone right now. A new phone would be a luxury.”
According to a recent study by Reviews.org, the average American now uses a smartphone for 29 months, and that cycle is getting longer and longer. In 2016, the average was about 22 months.
Squeezing the life out of devices as much as possible may save money in the short term, especially amid concerns about the strength of the consumer and employment markets, but in the long term it can cost the economy, especially if device hoarding is occurring at the corporate level.
A study released last month by the Federal Reserve concluded that productivity declines by about one-third of a percentage point for every additional year that companies delay updating equipment, and that investment patterns account for about 55% of the productivity gap among developed countries. The good news is that U.S. companies are generally quick to reinvest in replacing aging equipment. If European productivity had matched U.S. investment patterns since 2000, the productivity gap between the U.S. and Europe’s largest economies would have narrowed by 29 percent in the U.K., 35 percent in France, and 101 percent in Germany, according to the Fed’s report.
Experts agree that reduced productivity and inefficiency are an unintended consequence of people and businesses clinging to aging technology.
“Think about how much internet speeds have changed over the past decade. In the 2010s, 100MB speeds were considered fast and very good. Less than a decade later, we’re now running 1GB speeds, which is about 10 times faster,” says Cassandra Cummings, CEO of New Jersey-based electronics design firm Thomas Instrumentation. Operating at higher GB speeds requires different electronic hardware, which many older technologies cannot accommodate.
“These devices were designed at a time when no one could have imagined that such high speeds would become mainstream,” Cummings said.
That could also put a strain on national networks.
“Both mobile phone and internet infrastructure must operate in a backward compatible manner to support older, slower devices. Networks often need to be slowed down to accommodate the slowest devices,” Cummings said. “Entire sections of the network or internal network are often running slower than they would if all devices were compliant with the new standard,” she added.
Cummings doesn’t deny that keeping new devices and hardware up to date is expensive.
“Many businesses, especially small businesses and individuals, cannot afford to constantly upgrade to the latest and greatest devices,” she said.
To ease the transition to new technology, repairable or modular designs are needed, rather than regular purge and replace cycles, she says. “So future devices may allow for partial upgrades, such as Ethernet communications, rather than forcing you to buy a completely new computer or device,” Cummings said. “I don’t like the throwaway culture these days. This may help increase economic spending and force upgrades, but will it really help people who are already struggling to pay their bills?” she said.
In fact, entrepreneurs in the device resale market see long-life technology as a success story that can be improved upon. Stephen Aswal, CEO of UK-based Big Phone Store, which specializes in refurbished mobile phones, says the longevity of the device is not an issue. “The problem is lag. Businesses and individuals are trying to squeeze modern workloads out of outdated hardware, heavy processing, rendering, generation, and management, which is holding back productivity. Old technology’s slow processors, outdated software, and aging batteries waste energy and morale,” Aswal said.
He added that once people keep using their mobile phones and laptops for five to six years, the repair and refurbishment market becomes an active part of the economy. But much of it is currently happening in the shadows, both in Europe, America and the global market.
“Unregulated, underreported and underutilized. If governments and big tech companies properly support refurbishment, aging devices can also become part of a sustainable circular economy,” Aswal said, adding that the second-hand cycle has been improved by extending software support, improving access to parts and treating repairs as infrastructure.
“That way, you can disable continuous replacement. Small and large businesses alike don’t have to constantly push for financially burdensome upgrades,” Aswal said.
Still, some device makers are finding ways to entice consumers to ditch their old phones for new ones. For example, Apple just announced one of its most successful new products with the iPhone 17, and artificial intelligence could be a game changer.
Najiba Benaves, dean of Neumann University’s School of Business, said rising prices and sustainability concerns are among the reasons “America’s equipment is aging,” but said the market should focus on lower productivity, increased repair and maintenance costs, and limited access to software updates and efficiency improvements.
“Small businesses in particular lose valuable time each year due to system delays, creating what economists call ‘productivity drag,'” Benaves said. On a national scale, this translates into billions of dollars in lost production and reduced innovation. “While storing devices longer may seem economically or environmentally responsible, the hidden cost is a silent erosion of economic dynamism and competitiveness,” she added.
Jason Cornweiss, senior vice president of advisory services at global technology solutions provider Diversified, says that while most people still want the latest phones and tablets, research shows a growing divide between businesses and individuals when it comes to aging devices.
“Companies with hundreds or thousands of employees don’t invest at the same pace,” Kornweiss said, adding that technology is changing so fast that IT departments can’t keep up, and that bloated companies need to vet the latest technology, which takes time, and by the time they do, new stuff has arrived anyway. As a result, companies are using increasingly lengthy technologies.
“Companies have multi-year expiration dates. Employees think it’s too much of a hassle to replace devices within the organization, and people balk when IT brings in new devices, even if it’s a meaningful upgrade,” Kornweiss said.
The price organizations pay is a lack of productivity, an inability to multitask and innovate, and unnecessary additional work hours. A workplace survey conducted last year by Diversified found that 24% of employees are late or work overtime due to issues with aging technology, and 88% of employees report that innovation is stifled by insufficient technology in the workplace. Kornweiss said he doesn’t expect to see any improvement in those numbers over the past year.
There is a disconnect between numbers and actions. Many workers report that their aging devices reduce their productivity, but just like a favorite pair of shoes or an old sweater, they don’t want to part with them in order to learn the intricacies of a new device (which must be learned and then replaced with another device). For many employees, familiarity can take precedence over productivity. But the results of that IT obsession are reflected in the bottom line.
“Productivity is hampered and all of that has a tangible impact on the economy,” Kornweiss said.
A worker’s greatest asset is time, and outdated devices eat up that time, he says. Mr. Kornweiss said that bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies could be a savior for companies that have been slow to upgrade, as individuals these days are able to use their own more capable devices and easily integrate them into most workplace systems. Another option for businesses that don’t want to buy large numbers of devices that quickly become obsolete is to lease them.
Kornweiss sees a future where technology continues to advance at breakneck speed and businesses continue to struggle to keep up. And people like Heather Mitchell will continue to cling to their devices.
“I tend to stay on my cell phone until I have no choice. This is only my fifth cell phone in 26 years,” Mitchell said.
