Americans are keeping phones and tech longer, reducing upgrade cycles

Americans are no longer in a rush to upgrade their phones, and it’s beginning to take a toll on the country’s economic engine.

From Tucson to New York, from one-man startups to sprawling corporations, devices that should’ve been retired years ago are still limping along, and it’s dragging down everything from workplace performance to national productivity.

According to Reviews.org, the average smartphone in America is now held for 29 months, up from 22 months in 2016. That may not sound dramatic, but when multiplied by millions of consumers and thousands of companies, those extra months spell trouble.

According to CNBC, people just aren’t swapping out devices like they used to, and the domino effect is becoming clearer by the year.

Heather Mitchell, an American retiree living in Tucson, is one of many Americans stretching the life of their old tech.

Her Samsung Galaxy A71 is six years old, and while she admits it’s “a jalopy,” she has no plans to trade it in. “I love Samsung phones, but can not afford a new one right now. A new phone would be a luxury,” Heather said.

Aging gadgets, falling productivity, and a costly wait

That kind of decision might make sense for someone on a tight budget, but when businesses start doing the same, the cost is much higher.

A recent report from the Federal Reserve found that for every extra year companies delay tech upgrades, overall productivity falls by about a third of a percent. Stretch that across the entire economy and it’s a hit worth billions.

America still leads when it comes to corporate reinvestment, but the impact is visible globally. If investment patterns in Europe had mirrored the U.S. since 2000, the productivity gap with the U.S. would’ve shrunk by 29% for the U.K., 35% for France, and an astonishing 101% for Germany.

But while companies are somewhat faster than households at cycling out old hardware, they’re still not keeping up with the speed of innovation. Cassandra Cummings, who runs New Jersey’s Thomas Instrumentation, said outdated devices are throttling networks.

“Older devices were built before 1GB speeds became normal. Now networks have to work around them, which means slowing everything down just to stay compatible,” Cassandra said.

She doesn’t deny upgrades are expensive, especially for small businesses or individuals who are barely covering bills. But the alternative, holding on forever, comes with hidden costs.

Cassandra says repairable or modular devices could help ease the transition, but “we’ve built a throw-away culture,” and that makes it hard for people to keep up without constantly buying new gear.

Steven Athwal, who runs The Big Phone Store in the U.K., says the real issue is what people are expecting from them. “Trying to run modern workloads on ancient tech is a drain,” Steven said.

Lagging processors, failing batteries, and outdated software are killing morale and wasting energy. Even worse, the booming repair and resale industry that could fill this gap is still ignored, underfunded, and unregulated in America.

Workplaces suffer while employees cling to what’s familiar

Jason Kornweiss, who leads advisory services at Diversified, says old devices aren’t just an annoyance, they’re also an operational nightmare.

He cited internal workplace studies showing 24% of employees now work overtime due to outdated technology, and 88% feel innovation is stifled by it.

Jason pointed to the disconnect between behavior and reality. “People know their tech is holding them back, but they’re still reluctant to trade it in,” he said. Familiarity with aging systems often wins over the hassle of learning a new device. Even when IT shows up with upgrades, employees groan.

Slower systems mean more hours lost, less multitasking, and less creativity. Jason believes that “time is the most valuable thing a worker has,” and old devices are consuming too much of it.

Najiba Benabess, dean of business at Neumann University, sees a growing problem. She says many small businesses are sinking hours into maintenance and repairs, all while productivity quietly erodes.

“Keeping devices longer might look smart,” Najiba said, “but it chips away at our national competitiveness.”

And back in Arizona, Heather isn’t planning to buy anything new unless absolutely necessary. “In 26 years, this is only my fifth phone,” she said.

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