When Holding On Holds Back Work: The Hidden Productivity Tax of Aging Devices

Americans are keeping phones, laptops and tablets longer than ever. For consumers this is a sensible response to rising device costs, better hardware longevity and a greener impulse to avoid churn. But inside offices, coffee shops, distributed teams and factory floors, extended device lifespans are creating an invisible drag on how work gets done. The consequence: a slowdown in tech refresh cycles that reduces demand for new devices, a rise in security and support burdens, and a measurable — and surprisingly large — hit to U.S. productivity.

The retention trend that looks smart — until it meets work

There are many reasons people hold on to devices longer. High-end phones and laptops are built tougher and ship with better components than a decade ago. Software makers have grown skilled at squeezing performance from older hardware. Economic uncertainty and the sticker shock of premium devices make consumers think twice about upgrades. And a wider acceptance of refurbished goods has shifted the cultural expectation away from annual replacements.

That combination — better longevity, thrift, and environmental concern — is good news when the goal is stretching household budgets or reducing e-waste. But for organizations that rely on millions of devices as the primary portals to collaboration, data and customer service, the math is different. Devices that look fine on a kitchen counter can be friction points on the clock.

How old devices tax productivity — the everyday friction

When a device is older it does not just lose glamour; it changes how people work, minute by minute. A few concrete ways that aging hardware compounds friction:

• Slower app performance: Applications that underpin meetings, messaging and project work load more slowly. Multiply seconds into hundreds of interactions per week and the time loss becomes material.
• Battery degradation and interruptions: A phone that needs frequent charging or a laptop that dies in transit creates unscheduled stops. Meetings get muted, calls drop, and momentum is lost.
• Audio/video quality: Older cameras, microphones and Wi‑Fi radios produce poorer calls, which means repeating information and scheduling follow-ups.
• Compatibility and feature loss: Some new collaboration software assumes hardware features (accelerometers, secure enclaves, modern GPUs) that older models lack, forcing workarounds or degraded experiences.
• Higher support demands: Help desks spend more time troubleshooting flaky devices, diverting talent from strategic IT work to repeated triage.

These are not hypothetical annoyances. They accumulate into lost minutes, missed moments and scaled inefficiencies. At a team level, a few lost minutes per person, per day are invisible. At a national level, spread across millions of workers, they add up to billions of hours.

Security, compliance and hidden enterprise costs

Aging devices also amplify security risk. Operating systems and firmware are typically supported for a finite span. When devices fall outside that window they stop receiving security patches, exposing corporate networks and sensitive data to avoidable vulnerabilities. The result is an uptick in monitoring, stricter segmentation strategies, and often, higher insurance and audit costs.

For regulated industries — finance, healthcare, public services — unsupported endpoints create compliance headaches. Organizations respond with policies that restrict access or impose more cumbersome security measures such as frequent multi-factor prompts, virtual desktops, or locked-down app containers. Those mitigations protect data but also slow workflows.

Economic arithmetic: why slowed refresh cycles matter

Device replacement is not just a retail statistic. It feeds manufacturing, logistics, retail jobs, component ecosystems and software investment cycles. A slowdown in turnover changes demand across supply chains and chips new product planning. But the deeper economic effect is how aging endpoints lower the effective productivity of the workforce.

Consider an illustrative calculation. If even a modest six minutes of productive time is lost per worker per day due to aging device friction, the annual cost becomes substantial. With roughly 150 million employed Americans and a conservative estimate that 75% of them rely on a personal device for work, the math is compelling: six minutes across that population converts to roughly 3.5 billion lost work hours per year. Valued at a modest average hourly compensation, the implied productivity loss runs into the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars annually. The exact numbers hinge on assumptions about penetration, frequency, and wage levels — but the scale is undeniable.

Inequality and the two-speed device economy

Device retention isn’t evenly distributed. Higher-income workers are more likely to have recent devices or employer-provided hardware, while lower-income workers more commonly rely on older phones or refurbished laptops. That creates a two-speed productivity reality: some people benefit from the latest features and fast connections while others take on the cognitive and time costs of delay.

Frontline roles — retail associates, service technicians, delivery drivers — often rely on single-purpose devices that are maintained as long as they function. When those devices lag or fail, customer experience suffers and recovery costs can be large. In a sense, the economic prudence of keeping a phone one more year can compound into lost revenue or ratings across thousands of customer interactions.

Business strategies that misread the trade-offs

Too many organizations look at device procurement only through the lens of acquisition cost. The sticker price of a laptop or phone matters, but lifecycle cost — including support, downtime, security mitigation and lost productivity — is what truly drives return on investment. When that lifecycle calculus is ignored, short-term savings morph into long-term expense.

Another common mistake is a blanket BYOD approach without targeted policies. Allowing older personal devices to access enterprise systems can be cost neutral in procurement terms but expensive in support and risk management. Conversely, blanket refresh programs that replace everyone’s devices on a strict cadence can be wasteful and environmentally costly if not calibrated by role and need.

Practical paths forward: balancing thrift, security and productivity

Tackling the productivity tax of aging devices means moving past binary choices (replace everything vs. replace nothing) and toward smarter lifecycle strategies. Practical options include:

• Role-based refresh policies: Prioritize replacement for roles where device performance directly impacts output — sales, customer support, remote collaboration leads, and on-floor staff. Let noncritical roles operate longer with performance checks.
• Device-as-a-Service (DaaS): Leasing or subscription models can smooth budget impact, guarantee refresh windows and include maintenance, reducing the hidden support burden.
• Minimum performance standards: Define usable device baselines (CPU class, memory, battery health thresholds) rather than replacement by age alone. Automate health checks through endpoint management.
• Invest in repairability and the circular supply chain: Embrace certified refurbished and repair programs to balance cost, speed and sustainability. That reduces e‑waste while keeping devices up to standard.
• Targeted stipends and trade-ins: Provide targeted stipends or trade-in incentives for employees whose device age is proven to constrain work.
• Software optimization and progressive enhancement: Design collaboration tools to degrade gracefully for older hardware while offering richer experiences on new devices. This retains accessibility without forcing uniform upgrades.
• Security-aware policies: Enforce minimum patch levels for device access; use conditional access and zero-trust models to protect data while allowing flexibility.

A balanced, sustainable pact between workers and workplaces

The question for leaders is not whether people should keep their phones longer — that choice is rational and often beneficial. The question is how organizations can design systems and policies that respect consumer thrift and environmental stewardship, while removing the productivity tax that aging devices impose on work.

Crafting that balance requires attention to lifecycle costs, role-specific needs and equitable access. It also demands rethinking procurement as a tool for productivity rather than a line item to minimize. When companies treat devices as strategic infrastructure — not disposable perks — they reclaim time and remove friction that accumulates at scale.

Conclusion: small delays, big consequences — and practical remedies

Keeping a phone for an extra year feels sensible and good for the planet. But when millions of workers do the same without organizational strategies to offset performance decline, small daily delays compound into measurable economic losses. The solution is not a rush to replace, but a smarter set of promises: devices that meet clear performance baselines, targeted refresh programs for roles that need them, stronger repair and circular options, and security policies that reduce risk without killing productivity.

In the end, work is a choreography of small, repeatable actions. When one piece of equipment — a worn battery, a sluggish app, a broken mic — trips the flow, the effect is multiplied across teams and months. Addressing the hidden costs of aging devices is a practical investment in speed, fairness and the economy’s ability to do more with the tools it already has.