Users are reluctant to replace their phones, causing US operators to complain

According to Bloomberg, AT&T and Verizon in the United States revealed that the mobile phone upgrade rate of the two operators has dropped to an all-time low, and the number of existing users upgrading their phones has decreased.

The downward trend in upgrade rates isn't new, and they've been trending down for years, but the record lows from the two largest U.S. carriers paint a stark picture for AT&T and Verizon, as well as hardware manufacturers like Apple and Samsung. It means fewer customers are interested in upgrading their phones, and they're doing so less frequently than before.

Recently, the prices of products from several major mobile phone manufacturers have been rising, models in the mid-to-high-end market have emerged in an endless stream, but performance improvements have been limited, and innovation has reached a bottleneck. It is not difficult to understand why consumers are reluctant to upgrade.

Apple's iPhone sales forecast revision earlier this year accounted for the lowest expected smartphone sales. Apple has begun to change its strategy over the past few years to shift to software services and subscriptions to maintain weak hardware sales. At the same time, Apple has tried to alleviate the sluggish situation by increasing the average selling price of iPhones.

However, carrier sources confirm that it's not just Apple that's doing this. If the trends reported by Verizon and AT&T are true, the entire industry appears to be struggling across the board.

This may sound bad, but the rising prices of new smartphones and the declining returns are only a small part of the problem. The mobile field is facing another major transformation, and 5G is coming. This may bring new vitality to operators and terminal manufacturers. Since 5G requires special hardware support, it will stimulate consumers to buy new mobile phones to experience 5G services. After experiencing the trend of full-screen phones, the concept of folding phones has quietly emerged. If this technology can be perfectly presented to consumers, I believe that many people will empty their wallets for it.