According to a Vodafone survey consumer are holding onto phones longer and they mean…. much longer.
Instead of a new device every two years on average, consumers are now holding onto their smartphones for up to 4 years.
The survey of over 2,000 users carried out in the UK revealed that the average smartphone owner now upgrades their phone a lot later than in the past for many of them happy with the features in the device they already own.
This compares to once every two years just five years ago.
Researchers suggest that the Covid lockdown and consequent stagflation have understandably made people very cautious about splashing the cash especially as consumers, like in Australia are now facing financial pressure.
In the UK Vodafone has unveiled a ‘lifetime service promise’ that covers warranty repairs and replacement batteries for its postpaid subscribers.
In Australia both Telstra and key partner JB Hi Fi are feeling the pinch as customers are choosing not to buy new handsets like they did in the past, and those that do are trading in their old models. Telstra had initially tipped that customers coming off their device repayment plans on both 24-month plans and 36-month plans would upgrade to a new device, but this has not happened.
CEO Vicky Brady said recently, “We had anticipated more growth in (mobile hardware) and that’s because we have customers coming off their device repayment plans on both 24-month plans and 36-month plans at the moment,” she said.
“We had anticipated revenue to be a little bit higher.”
A recent report from CIRP reveal that while Apple is lifting the average selling price of their iPhones the company could see slowing demand for its smartphones.
From 2019 to 2021, Apple customers kept their phones longer and longer with 34% of them having an iPhone that was three years of age or older.
Analysts are tipping a fall in demand for the new iPhone 15.
Samsung sold approximately 200 million phones as of the last quarter of 2022. It’s a decline of around 72.3 million from the overall sales of 2021. In the past five years, Samsung’s yearly sales peaked in 2019, when it sold 295 million phone units.
