Millions of Old Phones Collecting Dust in Hungarian Households

In Hungary, the average age of used mobile phones is 2.8 years, primarily of those over 60 and respondents with lower than average incomes cling to their devices. Magyar Telekom announced that here are an average of 1.7 unused mobile phones per household, totaling 2.7 million, lying around at home.

The average age of currently used mobile phones is 2.8 years, and 11% of them were delivered to their current users in a used or refurbished state. 41% of Hungarians are willing to buy a refurbished device from a reliable source. At Magyar Telekom, in the spirit of the circular economy, the recycling of old, unusable devices, the sale of usable devices, and the purchase of refurbished devices are all provided.

Magyar Telekom stated that in Hungary, an average of 1.7 units per household, a total of 2.7 million unused mobile devices can be stored in our homes.

58% of the participants in the research said that they kept old mobile phones lying in the depths of drawers, on shelves, and in other places as a backup. 18% of them did not get rid of these devices even after purchasing new ones because they had important data and photos on their old mobile phones, and 17% simply did not want to throw them away and did not know what to do with them.

58% of those surveyed would hand in their unused devices if they knew exactly where and how to do it. However, 19% of them would need special motivation to get rid of their unused mobile devices. Such motivation could be a discount when buying a new phone, offering a donation or planting trees after returning used mobile phones.

23% of respondents do not want to get rid of these devices at all: primarily those over 60 and those with lower than average incomes cling to their devices.

However, few people consider that devices that gather dust in a drawer over the years continuously lose both their value and functionality.

The next group is gift givers (22%). Gift givers primarily live in small communities, they pass on their unused devices to family or close friends. Their motivations include wanting to do something good, saving money, or justifying their own desire to buy a new device, they want a new phone, so they look for someone in their close circle to whom they can pass on their old one.

The smallest group of people (7%) always sell their old device before or after buying a new device. They use the income they earn to buy a new phone, or they see the price of the sold phone as unexpected extra income. They are the ones who enjoy the process of selling and do not understand why or what they should keep their old devices for.

The average age of used mobile phones is 2.8 years, a slow decline compared to the average age of 3.1 years 5 years ago.

A smaller portion, 11%, was delivered to current users in used or refurbished condition. More than half (56%) of people still buy their new devices in person, in stores, or from their mobile service providers.

The proportion of mobile phones purchased online is increasing to a lesser extent, whether from the mobile operator’s web store (7%) or another online store (11%). 37% of those surveyed will purchase their next device from their own mobile operator, 9% will buy it from somewhere else, and 48% think both solutions are possible.

Via Világgazdaság; Featured picture: Pexels