950 million phones sold last year and the total worldwide mobile subscriber base grew from 2.1 billion to 2.7 billion. Phones are replaced every 18 months.How many people have more then one mobile phone? what do they do with old theyone?
I used to have two when I needed one for personal and one for work. Now I just have one because I don't do that job any more. However I have had my phone replaced last year after it was stolen, does that count as two then?
I would suspect there are a LOT of people who keep at least one old phone around just in case they break their new phone, especially if that old phone is some plain-jane phone that isn't worth much on the used market. If the phone is actually still worth anything on the 2nd hand market, they often get sold on OKorder, craigs list, local newspaper etc. Many, and I mean a LOT of phones never fully survive 2 years. You are also looking at this from a very skewed perspective, that of the 2 year contract or 18 month replacement cycle. In Europe, it is normal to purchase the phone and the service separately, no contract, no subsidy, no waiting 18 or 24 months before replacing a phone. You are free to buy a phone, or many (at retail, maybe $500-$900+ for a smart phone) sell at will, swap your SIM from one to another. It would not be strange to have a phone for work, one for the weekend, an old beater for dirty enviroments Also, if you are someone who just wants a plain old mobile for Emergency use or to make the occasional phone call, there is no reason you can't keep the phone for 3,4,5 years. There are just WAY to many variables between total sold and total subscribers to make any kind of real comparison. If the subscribers grew by 1 billion, but number of phones sold grew by 500 million, then you could conclude that the used phone business is doing very well, but short of that, you just can't make any comparisons from those numbers.
well i have had 3 phones. my frist one was a Motorola and i hated it but i still have it, i keep meaning to put it in one of them phone bins . my 2nd phone was an iphone ad well i managed to get into a spa with it still in my pocket (epic fail i know) and my current phone is another iphone. so i kinda have 2 phones because i still have my first.
