The average American now holds onto their smartphone for 29 months, according to a recent survey by Reviews.org, and that cycle is getting longer. The average was around 22 months in 2016.
While squeezing as much life out of your device as possible may save money in the short run, especially amid widespread fears about the strength of the consumer and job market, it might cost the economy in the long run, especially when device hoarding occurs at the level of corporations.
“Economy” is almost always corpo newspeak for wealthy people’s money. If they actually meant the economy as in everyone’s stake in the economic system the phrase “cost the economy” would be meaningless. Buy devices second hand direct from individual seller markets or older models. The article also quotes multiple CEOs but no labor leaders.