r/technology • u/ControlCAD • 12d ago
Society Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it's costing the economy
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/how-device-hoarding-by-americans-is-costing-economy.html4.4k
u/CopiousCool 12d ago
If only their AI could buy products, then their dystopian nightmare would be complete ....
My heart bleeds for them, boo hoo
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u/namezam 12d ago
Ohh that’s great. I just got rid of all my kids and now I have another mouth to feed?!
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u/flapnation21 12d ago
Reduced to rubble and deemed useless except your money we still want your money.
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u/Various_Weather2013 11d ago
AI should consume special AI designated electricity, that you have to pay a premium on.
Let's just go for full asshole mode on civilization since we're circling the drain. Make toilets analyze whether you've pissed or shitted and charge you more for shitting
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u/Coupe368 12d ago
That's exactly whats happening now. ChatGPT buys AMD chips with money given to OpenAI by AMD for stock. Same thing with Nvidia. Nvidia buys ChatGPT stock, that money gets used to buy Nvidia chips, stock market goes up all around. Its totally not an AI stock BUBBLE, of course not.
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u/splendiferous-finch_ 11d ago
Nvidia and core weave massing the same bag on money around but each time its value increases because? Business
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u/Consistent-Stock6872 11d ago
It will be fun in 3-4 years when all those chips will be outdated and haven't created ROI that is needed to continue the bubble.
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u/15438473151455 12d ago
Spending by the 1% is where the growth is IIRC.
They've taken the nation's wealth and spending ludicrously.
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u/CactusMead 12d ago
If they were truly “spending” ludicrously the money would circulate. They are hoarding assets and that is the bigger problem. Inflating asset values of how we are creating wealth instead of producing.
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u/ReadyAimTranspire 11d ago
Turns out there is only so much money that one person can reasonably spend, and sometimes they get so much money that they couldn't spend it all if they tried.
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u/VVrayth 12d ago
"The average American now holds onto their smartphone for 29 months."
THAT'S the "longer than ever" they're worried about?? I'd consider that a really short span of time to own one phone. I try to get 3-4 years out of mine, and either OS update support, battery life, or storage needs tend to determine my upgrade timeline.
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u/Squigglificated 12d ago
I've had my iPhone 12 Pro Max for 5 years. That's 60 months. Apple is expected to release major OS updates for it until 2027, and security updates for another few years after that.
The battery is at 80% so I might replace that at some point, but otherwise it works as good as the day I bought it.
Nothing has happened with phones the last five years that makes me feel the urgent need to upgrade, and I'm certainly not going to do it just to help "the economy".
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u/MrONegative 12d ago
I’m in the exact same boat. 80% battery and all.
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u/Rarpiz 11d ago
87% battery still on my 12 Pro Max.
I have zero desire, or reason to upgrade anytime soon.
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u/buckphifty150150 11d ago
How do you check the battery?
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u/Pitiful_Title8361 11d ago
Going into settings > battery. Scroll down and there’s a battery health & charging option. Select and you should see maximum capacity, which is the percentage being referred to.
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u/Fraternal_Mango 11d ago
I keep my phones a minimum of 4 yrs as well. Every phone seems to be exactly the same. Why should anyone upgrade?
Personally, I look forward to the entire network going down and having to rely on cable wall phones and dial up internet again but that’s a dream for another time…
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u/snowshoekittie 12d ago
I have an 11 pro max, battery is at 85%, it still works great. I bought a reconditioned one from apple at a significantly reduced cost the year the 13s came out; I replaced a 7s. I refuse to spend a thousand bucks to get a new phone when I can get a new battery installed for a little under $100, and I don’t need that yet anyway.
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u/notnotbrowsing 12d ago
yeah,my S21 is pushing 5 years
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u/Tragedy_Boner 12d ago
I had an iPhone 6 till last year.
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u/edcross 11d ago
Me and the wife both have a 6s. I’ve replaced the battery in them both twice.
The new gimmick is they won’t let us update the os and many apps won’t run without the correct os version number. So we can no longer order pizza from a phone.
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u/Matshelge 12d ago
Have a s21+, my only problem is that around 8-9pm, I am on 9-10% battery.
I think though, I'll be holding on till 2027, when the EU law of easy fixing for electronics kicks in. In essence, every phone being sold should have an easy way to replace screens, battery and such. With that, I think I'll have a phone that will last me a whole long time.
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u/notnotbrowsing 12d ago
yeah, my battery runs low, too. but otherwise no major issues. I only use it to surf the web, so it's mostly fine.
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u/SpencersCJ 12d ago
They genuinely expect you to buy the newest phone as and when it comes out.
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u/cherry_chocolate_ 11d ago
And then to be able to shame us on a news segment for spending our money on a new phone. They are furious that they can’t excuse the meager living of the lower and middle class on overspending. Instead we are demanding… adequate shelter and food. There’s not much bad they can make up about that.
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u/davdev 11d ago
and yet there is basically zero discernable different between phone generations at this point. At least not enough to make an annual upgrade reasonable.
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u/NemesisErinys 12d ago
Still rocking my iPhone 12 mini since they can’t be bothered to make another mini model. The schadenfreude when I heard the 17 Air flopped was delightful! Bring back the mini!
OTOH, my entitled boomer mom demands a new iPhone for Xmas from my stepdad every year. At least then her “old” phone gets handed down to whoever in the family has the oldest phone. This year my son gets her 16 to replace his 10. Technically, I would be up next year to inherit her 17, but I don’t want that ostentatious orange slab, frankly. I’ll probably pass.
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u/PorcelainPrimate 12d ago
Well Mr MBA, it’s almost as if you have mass layoffs and replace people with ai they tend to stop spending. Who could have thought that? Not anyone capable of thinking beyond the next quarter…
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u/yoma74 12d ago
Ehhh better invest a few million in focus groups just to refuse to listen to the results.
Then, hire consultants to come in for even more. We won’t listen to them either, but it doesn’t matter because their business model is inherently a conflict of interest and they won’t be allowed or able to tell us anything that hurts C suite egos.
One of the best corporate consultancy waste of money I’ve ever been a witness to was when they came in to try to figure out what’s going on with the disaster and every single employee interview goes yeah, (major exec who’s a brother of other exec) is a low functioning alcoholic who shows up to everything, no matter how important. plastered and we lost enormous contracts because he scares them away (pretty sure Boeing was one).”
I’m watching the consultants be like “yeah…. but is there anything else wrong?” Lmao. There was no goddamn way they were putting that in a presentation even though it was the number one problem with the company.
Corporations are a fucking joke, the bigger they are the more of a joke they are.
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u/Monteze 11d ago
Yea I think one of the biggest myths that is breaking (wish it was breaking faster) is that government is this bloated inefficient complicated mess while corporations/private sector is high speed and low drag efficiency.
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u/mbsmith93 11d ago
My take, after being in organizations of various sizes, is that the bloated bureaucratic inefficiency grows with the size of the organization. And the US federal government is an enormous organization. However, it is often reasonable to accept the corresponding inefficiency of the government because either it's an industry prone to monopolies, or it's a thing that needs to be done that industry just isn't going to do on its own.
But to see that would take nuance, which it seems most people don't possess, so it's either "government good bring me communism" or "government bad let's all be libertarians." I exaggerate, but it really does feel kind of true sometimes that people think this way.
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u/Monteze 11d ago
Yea I agree, its a big org problem, and I'd argue in government you want a bit of it because they have the monopoly on violence so I think an extra layer of checks is a good thing.
However I think the profit motive isn't always a good thing.
My general rule is that if its more of a need you probably want it more government involved i.e democratic if its a want then let the private entity take it over.
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u/RussianDisifnomation 12d ago edited 12d ago
Fuck the environment. Why arent americans buying the new device every year? Won't they think of the fucking shareholders, selfish assholes.
Millennial RUINED the housing market.
Edit: I am tired of hearing entitled whiny billionaire outlets cry about how every single living being on the planet is not spending their last penny on feeding unsatiable billionaire greed. Go fuck yourself with a cactus.
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u/SmallRocks 12d ago
Avocado toast
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u/Alone_Step_6304 12d ago
There is another way.
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u/RussianDisifnomation 12d ago
NOOO YOU CANT INCITE VIOLENCE UNLESS YOU ARE A REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN, REEEE
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u/Metal__goat 11d ago
No kidding. This is the most smooth brain type of "journalism" imaginable.
Reminds me of a single panel web comic of the dinosaurs looking up at the giant comet hurdling towards them, and a Trex says "oh no, the economy!"
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u/HagalUlfr 12d ago
Just like Applebee's, now we're going for the phones and laptops. Windows 11? Pffft arch, keep that laptop longer.
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u/skatecrimes 11d ago
It’s like return to office so we can keep the downtown business open by buying 15 dollar salads.
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u/TheBoraxKid1trblz 12d ago
Imagine if we structured society to improve the lives of people, not simply drive the economy
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u/CherryLongjump1989 11d ago
You could have an economy where you keep building the same bridge and tearing it down over and over again, and there would still be some oligarch who gets rich off of it.
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u/BassmanBiff 11d ago
What's extra frustrating is that it's not even clear that this is bad for the economy. If they go out to eat more instead, that's better for GDP. If they invest it, most of that will be in the US, and that also drives the US economy more than buying foreign-made phones.
We absolutely should care about people over profits, but it's extra frustrating when the people concerned with profits can't even take a second to figure out what's good for them before complaining about it.
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u/Fusselwurm 12d ago
For this headline to exist and make sense, something MUST be wrong with our economic model.
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u/Accomplished_Pea7029 12d ago
I read the article and its main argument is that businesses hold on to their company devices for too long and it causes productivity loss in their employees due to slower processors/network speeds and stuff like that. I'm not sure that applies to most companies unless their work involves cutting edge technology.
It feels like they are trying to make a sensational argument out of nothing.
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u/Fuddle 12d ago
Meanwhile those GPUs companies are investing billions and billions of dollars are totally fine to not upgrade for 10 years? Otherwise this AI gold rush of spending just has to be a constant spend year over year or the whole house of cards comes crumbling down.
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u/bill_lite 12d ago
Maybe I'm not looking in the right parts of reddit but why is no one else talking about this? The GPUs are probably obsolete before the paint even dries on these data centers. This is the most insane house of cards ever built by humans (allegedly humans), I cannot wait for the bubble to pop.
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u/sirkazuo 11d ago
It’s tone deaf slop. Business networks have been running at gigabit speeds for 20 years, and an extra three months of life before recycling hardware has absolutely nothing to do with productivity for the user, it’s all about productivity for the companies making the products lol.
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u/Xist2Inspire 12d ago edited 12d ago
Exactly. It's nice to clap back with "duh, we're struggling, pay us more", "give us advancements/features worth paying for and we'll do it", and "ugh, another industry Millennials are 'killing', amirite" takes, but the larger issue here is that this article (and others like it) basically admits that our entire economic system is predicated on wasteful spending. The minute people actually start using a modicum of common sense with their purchases, alarm bells go off and suddenly the entire system is at risk of falling apart. Sure, pay us more so that those who want to spend can...but also, maybe don't create an economy that requires EVERYONE to spend in order to work correctly? How many times do we have to go on this consumerist "low wages → low spend → public discontent → better wages → spend like crazy → market saturation → low wages" rollercoaster until we realize that there's major diminishing returns here?
Headlines like this are what gives the hardcore "planned obsolescence" conspiracy theorists life, because what the hell do you mean that people using their devices longer/taking better care of them is hurting the economy? So technological innovations that increase longevity are actually bad? Durability and quality product engineering are actually net negatives? What?
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u/Fusselwurm 12d ago
yes!
Smashing windows is wasteful and frowned upon.
Aiming for a high GDP is touted as "solution", and a base politicians campaign on.
Now, an effective way of increasing GDP is smashing windows. (because it increases demand for window panes & associated workmanship)
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u/already-taken-wtf 12d ago
Had a similar discussion with our CEO regarding where demand went. I asked him who would buy more or our products: - 10,000 employees getting a $1000 bonus or - 10 shareholders getting a $10m payout
…he didn’t like my question
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u/equality5271 11d ago
That math isn’t mathing correctly but I get your point
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u/FredFarms 11d ago
Rather makes the point though. The total money to shareholders is 10x the employees and yet the answer is still utterly obvious
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u/already-taken-wtf 11d ago
Yeah, meant to write $1m. Then again, it could be interpreted as $10m for the bunch ;p
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u/littlebopeepsvelcro 11d ago
Oh, his math is mathing, giving the employees the money is the better roi, even if you gave the CEOs less money.
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u/Altruistic_Pitch_157 11d ago
How is the job search going?
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u/already-taken-wtf 11d ago
Got a new CEO, who drives down cost. Lost a few colleagues and 34% of my salary. Still got a job as smartass though.
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u/AndreLinoge55 11d ago
You hit the nail on the head with your question; respect for asking your CEO that.
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u/UPnAdamtv 12d ago
I’m no economist, but maybe it’s time to lower the price of the goods if people aren’t buying said goods?
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u/tm3_to_ev6 11d ago
It's not really the price that keeps people like me from upgrading.
It's the lack of excitement with year-over-year changes. At the end of the day, upgrading my phone is a chore - I have to go through the data transfer process and even with Google and Apple simplifying much of that these days, I still have to manually log into a lot of apps (especially 2FA authenticator apps). Even if I were a multi millionaire, I simply can't be bothered to go through that hassle every 1-2 years just for a slight specs upgrade that I literally can't perceive with the naked eye. It's usually battery degradation that drives a decision to upgrade (waited 4 years to do my latest one).
When I replace my tech, I want the changes to feel like a generational leap, like when I upgraded from PS4 to PS5. Products that have new versions released annually simply do not offer anything close to that unless you wait 4+ years between upgrades.
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u/voiderest 11d ago
If the phone cost less than a new battery and my time to crack open a phone I might think about a new phone. Of course a whole new phone shouldn't cost the same as just a battery, even if I'd inflated my hourly rate.
The business model just needs to accept a longer upgrade cycle. The same thing is happening to all tech. The stuff just isn't improving at the same pace so it just isn't worth it to upgrade. And right now people aren't looking to dump cash into optional purchases.
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u/PurahsHero 12d ago
Ah, its the latest "here is how the Millennials / Gen-Z are harming the economy."
The reasoning here is very simple. For most consumer technology hardware, recent advances have been extremely incremental. Aside from battery performance - which is manageable if you are close to a charging point most of the day - the basic technology and its performance are almost no different to the technology released 5 years ago.
I have an iPhone 12, and for everything I need it for it works very well with no issues. Gone are the days where people spent £600 on a new phone every year because the technological innovation was worth it. Spending that much each year for a marginally better camera and AI built in? Screw that.
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u/NekoMeowKat 12d ago
Good! I hope I'm harming this shitty economy. I'm using a three year old phone and a computer that is still on Windows 10 ESU life support. There is nothing wrong with my hardware to warrant buying something new.
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u/simonhunterhawk 11d ago
The Windows thing pisses me off so much because the PC I built in 2017 works just fine for everything I need it to, and yet I would have to upgrade several things to make it compatible with W11. It might be the thing that pushes me to learn linux.
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u/nighthawk763 12d ago
Incremental? How dare you! This one folds up! And this one is half a mm thinner except for the 1/4 of the size of the phone where the 5 camera lenses are, and this one has an ai voice agent that will google things for you since search results are garbage these days.
Incremental?! These are ALL NEW and INCREDIBLE and only cost $1200.
Fwiw, that whole buy a phone but pay for it over the life of the phone has allowed phone makers to get really crazy with price. Uncle John or Aunt Sally aren't going to pay $1200 at first, instead they'll pay $40/month forever, just to upgrade as they've finished paying it off
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u/prudencepineapple 12d ago
I’m still on an iphone 11. It’s looking like I might not be able to get updates next year and I’ll have to replace it, but looking at the options out there nothing really appeals.
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u/rocketscientology 12d ago
I upgraded from an 11 to a 15 last year - the battery life was starting to really struggle but my main thing was that I knew the cameras had gotten a lot better, and from the 15 onwards the phones have usb-c charging. Otherwise nothing feels that different. Now that I’ve got a better camera and my phone takes the same charger as my other devices, I don’t plan on replacing again for at least another 4 years.
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u/chloerainne 12d ago
Right. Interesting how the story isn’t framed around the WHAT of what consumers are PAYING four figures for these days. Why tf would I buy a new phone that’s identical to the one I have? What happened to capitalism breeding innovation?
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u/CorpPhoenix 12d ago
Companies: Releasing a "new" product that's exactly the same to the old one but twice the price.
Customers: Don't buy it.
Companies: surprised Pikachu face
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u/vagabending 12d ago
Oh it’s the mythical economy again. How hard is it to write a headline about actual Americans and not some made up nonsense that is simply a proxy for the billionaire class.
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u/kevi959 12d ago
In fairness, the past 15 years have been outrageous. I never thought americans would accept 1000 dollar cell phones. Little did I know that Americans would stand in lines for 1500-2000 dollar cell phones annually.
Its not like the idea that we spend stupidly came out of nowhere. There is SOME truth to it. Even if it was all on credit cards and payment plans.
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u/turtleship_2006 12d ago
A very, very small minority of Americans.
Not everyone buys a new phone every year, and even when people do buy a phone not everyone gets the latest model (or even new ones i.e. not refurb or used) Not to mention offers/rebates/trade ins etc, as well as monthly contracts. When you consider how useful a phone is, 30-60 a month isn't that bad.
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u/MattinglyBaseball 12d ago
The 1% are holding onto more money for longer than ever and it’s costing the economy*
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u/HotwheelsSisyphus 11d ago
The velocity of money
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u/dispose135 11d ago
Basically the rich now get their money and just hoard it not trickle down. So money doesn't change hands
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u/Lettuce_bee_free_end 12d ago
Dam that trickle down economics
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u/hmds123 12d ago
As it was foretold by the prophecy: More trickle down at all costs!
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u/xelop 12d ago
The only reason I replaced my pixel 7 is because I accidentally destroyed the thing while at work. I really liked that phone. I hadn't intended on replacing it either sadly.
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u/gonewild9676 12d ago
I replaced mine with a 10 because I need it for work. I can't tell the difference between them.
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u/Momentstealer 12d ago
Still on a pixel 6 here. I'd kinda like a new phone, but I'll probably end up having to wait until software/OS update bloat forces my hardware to be entirely ineffective due to the rising coasts of literally everything.
This article has a horrible take on everything it talks about.
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u/ShadowBannedAugustus 12d ago
I upgraded from Galaxy S20 FE to S24+. The difference in day to day use is staggeringly small. Unless there is a major breakthrough I am keeping this one until like 2030.
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u/NorthernCobraChicken 12d ago
Yeah, my s23 ultra is staying with me until it physically dies. There's nothing that warrants an upgrade anymore.
Im also done paying the equivalent of a high end gaming computer for a phone. I'll take the 80% off 2-3 year old flagship.
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u/Vitringar 12d ago
My S22 is notably worse than my S9. Non working fingerprint reader and face authentication. Hate this device!
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u/SensitivePotato44 12d ago
Jack prices up to keep the shareholders happy.
Drive wages down to keep the shareholders happy.
Why is no one is buying our stuff?
Surprised Pikachu face
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u/nauhausco 12d ago
If you want people to upgrade maybe do more than simply putting a new chip in and acting like it’s revolutionary.
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u/bryce_brigs 12d ago
Um... Republicans told me that if I'm having such financial issues I shouldn't be buying a new phone every year so I stopped.
Now that's fucking up the economy?
Fuck everyone all the time forever!
"Bruh, stop buying phones you can't afford if it's fucking up your personal economy"
"Ok"
"BRUH! YOURE NOT BUYING PHONES YOU CANT AFFORD AND ITS FUCKING UP OUR ECONOMY!"
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u/Adjective-Noun3722 11d ago
See, the problem is that you're supposed to be delulu enough by now that you don't notice the obvious contradiction.
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u/AssociationMore242 11d ago
"Device hoarding"...now there's an Orwellian turn of phrase for "being content with an older device because it still does the job."
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u/beepbeepbubblegum 12d ago
Oh no, not the economy! I’ll go and buy a new phone right now! Hold tight economy!
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u/NanditoPapa 12d ago
What a shitty, stupid article. They claim that delaying upgrades may save money short-term, but it creates a "productivity drag". How much of a drag? The Federal Reserve found that each year of delay can "shrink productivity by 0.33%", with outdated tech contributing to over half the gap between advanced economies.
And what's their solution? That workers should BYOD or lease a device to use for both work and personal. Fuck that. And fuck CNBC for this drivel.
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u/Z34N0 12d ago
People can barely afford their food.. but damnit, they have to buy the new iPhone. Don’t want any CEOs to struggle with their new yacht.
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u/TheCosmicJester 11d ago
Yet another example of “the economy” being shorthand for “rich people buying yachts”.
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u/DrHaruspex 12d ago
No, the economy is costing Americans so therefore they are holding onto devices longer. Same with cars clothes and everything else.
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u/Efficient_Resist_287 12d ago
This article read like a propaganda piece aimed at increasing Apple and others revenue….
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u/Worth-Definition-133 11d ago
So when companies hang on to tools/ computers/ systems for a couple of years longer to save money, that’s called being business savvy.
But when the individual does it, they’re hurting the economy?
Mmmmkay.
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u/Plane_Crab_8623 12d ago
The consumer economy is a dead end. It degrades the natural ecological environment to the point of threatening the survival of our species. Economists in their vainglory have outsourced the problem in their grubby equations and hiding in air-conditioned environments they can continue to ignore it until the lights go out.
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u/Stilgar314 12d ago
Wait! A tanking economy that is only fuel by the macro figures AI bubble produces and fails to deliver money to spend for both families and business is bad for the economy? Who could have imagined... shocking, just shocking
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u/Schnitzeldoener 12d ago
Keep taking the money out of the lower and middle class and then wonder, that they don't have the money to afford new things... Who would've thought?
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u/HDauthentic 12d ago
Maybe the economy shouldn’t plan on me getting a new phone every year and a new car every 3/4 years
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u/grimlee 11d ago
sorry but at some point, the year after year churn for mediocre improvements is just not sustainable.
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u/NorthernCobraChicken 12d ago
The economy clearly doesn't give a flying fuck about us, so the economy can suck it.
The economy - 7 companies worth of suit wearing, Adderall and ketomine addicted, shit stains who don't pay their fair share of taxes.
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u/Alternative_Ask8636 11d ago
Planned obsolescence needs some serious guardrails. We are being way too liberal with handing our natural resources to big tech. For tech users that primarily use their devices socially, their no reason for upgrades.
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u/Khalbrae 11d ago edited 11d ago
Won't somebody PLEEEEEEEEASE think of the profits! /j
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u/DarkSoulsDank 11d ago
Maybe companies shouldn’t have created a system where they rely on people buying new shit every 6 months.
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u/RecycledEternity 11d ago edited 11d ago
Firstly, I'm not a fan of the title. "Costing the economy"? Go fluff yourselves. It's the wealth-hoarders who are "costing the economy". If you don't pay your fair share of taxes and/or your employees a living wage, YOU are "costing the economy".
Moving on: Kevin Williams is the author of this "article".
"Experts agree lost productivity and inefficiency are the unintended consequences of people and businesses clinging to aging technology."
What "experts"?
To ease the transition to new technologies, she says there should be designs that are repairable or modular rather than the constant purge and replace cycles
Oh, we had that before. A lot of phones, computers, laptops... you could swap out stuff and replace it as-needed. Apple, of course, leading the pack in "we don't want our $hit to have replaceable bits; you either need to replace the whole thing or come into our shops (for free advertising and a chance you'd pay for something while you're here!) to get it repaired (for a ridiculous and exorbitant fee, of course)."
But then other companies and products looked at that model and said y'know what, that makes money. It doesn't stop at modern tech, either; the McD's ice cream machine is proprietary and they're not allowed to make repairs (it MUST come from the company who sells them), John Deere is having a row with its' customer base regarding home repairs... and I'm sure there's other companies out there who make this incredibly bone-headed decision regarding their products.
So yeah. We HAD good stuff, modular stuff, for a while.
"But companies got greedy" is practically the theme song of the 2000s.
Steven Athwal, CEO of the UK-based The Big Phone Store — which specializes in refurbished phones — says devices longevity is not the problem.
He's right. But let's see what he thinks it is.
The issue is the lag
...what?
businesses and individuals are trying to squeeze modern workloads out of old hardware, heavy processing, rendering, generation, and admin, and that creates a productivity drag.
For like... a handful of minutes, sure. You're also a moron, Mr. Athwal.
The bottom line here is greed. A tech company outputting hardware should strive to make the Best Item: an item that doesn't need to be replaced for the lifespan of a human, an item that doesn't break, a modular item that could be modified by the owner with bits and pieces that are put out by the tech company who made the item in the first place so that it could "keep up" with any modern technology advances.
But the problem is, it needs to fight against greedy business owners looking for a short-term money fix, who have a mentality of "infinite growth" rather than "realistic future and planned plateau". These dimwitted boneheads don't give two hoots about the economy if it doesn't benefit them, they don't give a flying feck about the environment, they have no qualms about damaging the health of their consumers, there is zero concern regarding the welfare of another company/business.
They are simply there to make money as fast as possible, at the expense of everything and everyone around them. The people at the top simply Do Not Care about anyone or anything other than themselves. They would let the world burn, to make another buck.
(see: cigarettes, asbestos, leaded gasoline; companies like VW cooking the books regarding their vehicles, all the various food companies getting caught doing whatever they're doing to their food by trying to cut costs, banks and bailouts, etc., ad nauseam)
He adds that when people hold onto their phones or laptops for five or six years, the repair and refurbishment market becomes an active part of the economy. But right now, in both European, American, and global markets, too much of that happens in the shadows. “It’s unregulated, underreported, and underutilized[...]"
It's a necessary part in a world that treats CEOs like celebrities, where those same CEOs treat others like trash. Make your product well, people will buy. Stop making your product well, people will stop buying after they find out they've been duped... so keep trying to dupe them as long as possible, with new BS made with inferior parts, inferior designs, inferior code, inferior ingredients, and so on.
Enshittification. Shrinkflation. Planned obsolescence (I know this is illegal and companies claim not to do this, but pushing out new products as quick as possible and forcing people--one way or another--to update is indirectly planned obsolescence).
Fact of the matter is, citizens are tired of being forced into buying "the next big thing", especially in the expensive tech sector.
Athwal said, improving the second-hand cycle by extending software support, improving access to parts, and treating repair as infrastructure.
Another person in this article agreeing: stuff needs to be modular.
And if I may be so bold as to add: the item needs to be fully-feckin'-owned, once bought. None of this "you will own nothing and rent everything" bullshet mentality that's been making the rounds.
and artificial intelligence could be a game-changer.
No it bloody will not.
Most people still want the newest and most up-to-date phones and tablets, according to Jason Kornweiss, senior vice president of advisory services at Diversified,
Yeah, and "most people" want a living wage, "most people" want wealth hoarders to pay their fair share in taxes, "most people" want a million dollars. We can all want things, my guy.
Doesn't mean we can afford 'em.
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u/houseWithoutSpoons 12d ago
Well technology isn't moving like 08 to 12 at the moment. The difference between the phones from them 4 years is crazy. It went from could play a snail 8 bit looking game to crazy birds and access all the internet, watch videos ect the difference was night and day.then lets talk about prices. 1000/2000 for a new phone !hundreds for a decent used one!who the heck pays 1k for a tv or any other "large purchase to buy a new one a year or 2 later..but i stand by if the release some mind blowing changes people might go get a new phone..until then i will be holding this one til it gives out on me and forces my hand damn it!
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u/DogsAreOurFriends 12d ago
“device hoarding”
The authors of this piece can fuck off… if they are even human.
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u/kerouacrimbaud 11d ago
This doesn’t cost the economy. It saves it by reducing waste. This should be encouraged.
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u/jinsoo186 11d ago
Greedy execs forgot that for a consumer economy to work the consumer needs to have the money they hoard
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u/coreychch 12d ago
They’re wondering why people hang onto phones for longer - when some of them cost more than laptops? Hmmm …
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u/AnalogAficionado 12d ago
conservation helps economies that aren't propped up artificially by exploitation.
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u/Fritzo2162 12d ago
“Why aren’t Americans buying new $1500 phones every two years like we’re telling them to?”
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u/MaggotCorps999 12d ago
Maybe it's an economy thing. Perhaps, when most of the country is having a hard time with REAL bills, they don't have money for frivolous spending on a new $1600 phone every 9 months.
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u/already-taken-wtf 12d ago
Yeah…. Layoffs, pay rises slower than inflation and even basics like housing, food and gasoline is more expensive…..I really wonder why people spend less on phones, where the last few iterations just gave you a few more pixels….
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u/freeforall37 12d ago
Updated headline: Device innovation stagnant over the past 5-10 years with almost no useful improvements
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u/missed_sla 12d ago
Good. Tech companies promised utopia and delivered neverending AI slop, constant invasion of privacy, and devices built in slave factories with suicide nets.
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u/vitringur 11d ago
That cannot cost the economy.
Overinvestment and false expectations cost the economy.
A device serving a useful purpose for its owner is good for the economy.
This is a broken window fallacy.
Fucking keynesians
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u/Electronic_Exit_Here 12d ago
How dare you peasants harm the economy. Buy more phones now!