Recently, data from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board showed that the productivity gap between U.S. companies and European companies largely stems from differences in investment in new equipment. Affected by economic pressure, American consumers and businesses have begun to use older hardware for a longer period of time. This phenomenon is believed to have affected overall productivity improvements, but it is not realistic to promote faster hardware upgrades. Experts believe that improving the repairability and upgradeability of equipment may be a feasible way to save costs and improve production efficiency.
Research from Diversified, a technology solutions provider, points out that about 24% of employees have to work overtime due to problems with old technology, and 88% of employees say that old equipment limits innovation. Currently, hardware prices are rising, making upgrades more difficult. Over the past few years, supply chain shocks and frequent changes in tariffs have caused hardware prices to fluctuate wildly. The rise of the artificial intelligence industry has intensified the rush to buy new technologies (especially memory). The rise in memory prices has even caused some manufacturers to consider raising prices or discontinuing some products. Related shortages may continue until 2027.
Jason Kornweiss, CEO of Diversified, pointed out that it takes a very long time for large companies to test new technologies, and by the time verification is completed, better products may already be on the market. Cassandra Cummings, CEO of Thomas Instrumentation, believes that improving equipment repairability and modularity is an effective way to reduce costly and time-consuming overall system upgrades. Equipment with adequate replacement parts and continuous software updates can significantly extend its lifespan, while modular hardware allows companies to gradually upgrade parts of the equipment without having to replace it all at once.
The study also found that U.S. users are replacing smartphones far less frequently than expected due to higher prices. Pollfish commissioned reviews.org to conduct a survey of 1,000 adults, which revealed that they originally planned to upgrade their phones every 16 months, but actually kept their old phones for 22 months, replacing them with new ones on average every 29 months. The median price for new mobile phones purchased by U.S. users is $634, and the average price is $600, which is far lower than flagship models such as Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro, and even lower than the current new standard models.
Therefore, the most popular smartphones in the survey are iPhone 13, Samsung Galaxy S9 and iPhone 14, all products from a few years ago. The main reason why users ultimately choose to change devices is usually because the new model has faster performance or the battery life of the old phone is reduced. However, few respondents said they change to experience new features, have the latest model, or improve camera quality.
Taken together, the resistance to hardware upgrades lies not only in the high price of equipment, but also in the investment of time and resources required by enterprises. Therefore, improving the repairability and modular design of equipment may become the key to improving production efficiency and reducing costs in the future.