People wait longer to trade in smartphones, report finds

People are holding on to their aging smartphones longer, squeezing out a few more months of use before trading them in, a report indicates.

In the United States, iphones traded in between July 1 and Sept. 30 were 2.92 years old on average, up from 2.37 years old the comparable period two years earlier, according to data from Hyla Mobile Inc.

Android users swapped their phones a little faster. At the time of trade-in, the average Android phone was 2.66 years old, up from 2.44 years old in the comparable period in 2016, Hyla said. Hyla, a company that focuses on the secondary-use market for smartphones, provides analytics and device trade-in programs for businesses.

Analysts said the rising cost of new smartphones might give U.S. consumers pause when they’re deciding whether to upgrade. The iphone XS, for example, starts at $999. The Samsung Galaxy S9 starts at $720. When the iphone 7 debuted in 2016, it started at $649. That year, the Samsung Galaxy S7 was released and sold for about $700 without a contract, though carriers offered discounts.

Because of rising costs, carriers have eliminated previous deals that gave customers a subsidized phone upon signing a two-year contract. Thatwasfinanciallyviablefor carriers when phones cost $300 or $400, but not when they cost $800 to $1,200, said Biju Nair, chief executive ofhylamobile.

Instead, carriers now offer payment plans under which the buyer of a phone can pay a monthly fee for a certain period — say, two years — and then own it outright. Some people aren’t eager to take on monthly fees for a new phone right after they’ve paid off the last one.