the smartphone industry should consider their options when it comes to the smartphone business model.Manufacturing accounts for almost all of a smartphone’s carbon footprint in its first year of use, with 95% of carbon emissions coming from manufacturing processes, including the extraction of raw materials and shipping.
This does not mean reducing the number of smartphones in usage—but rather each smartphone would be used for longer, regardless of the number of individual owners during its lifetime. Even accounting for the CO2e emissions from refurbishing and shipping a used phone, prolonged ownership, whether by a single or multiple owners, reduces emissions overall.
To prolong the life of a smartphone, vendors need to think beyond physically refurbishing used devices, though. They need to address software support and security – specifically adapting the underlying operating system to work with devices of multiple ages. This has a major impact on the resale value of a device. It’s hard to sell a phone that’s no longer useful.
Vendors also need to provide regular security updates, which, depending on the vendor, can vary from three to five years. In some regions, regulations may require smartphone vendors to start providing security updates for five years. But we expect that by 2025, competitive pressures may have made five years of support commonplace for flagship models. As people get to know their device lifecycles better, it will become more advantageous for smartphone manufacturers to prove longevity.
This is an even more important factor when you consider the dominance of smartphones in the device market: the number of smartphonesis expected to be more than triple the number of computers and laptops and more than seven times the number of tablets. With smartphones leading the way, increased sustainability across categories shouldn’t be far behind. And every little bit helps.
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Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »