Smartphones: The majority is over 2 years old, a positive impact for the environment

The road is long, but the dynamics are good. It is in substance the morality that one can come out of the digital barometer published on March 19. This project carried out in partnership with the ARCEP (telecoms regulator) and the Arcom (audiovisual communication regulator) is trying to draw up a complete inventory of our digital relationship.

If we learn, among other things, that 91 % of the population now has a smartphone and that 33 % of French people have already used a Chatgpt -type artificial intelligence tool, the report also leaves a large place to the digital carbon footprint and highlights some good news on this ground.

A renewal forced more than wanted

First, there is a clear extension of the duration of use of smartphones. While in 2020, 63 % of the population had a smartphone under two years old, only 48 % of the population still entered this box in 2024. To say it differently, more than half of the French population with a smartphone over two years old. We are still far from the future imagined by Arcepor smartphones last 10 yearsbut there is better. A symbolic victory for the planet, since The majority of the digital carbon footprint comes precisely from the compulsive renewal of the terminals.

It should be noted, however, that the act of renewal is mostly “forced”, that is to say made necessary due to a dysfunction of the device or a lack of software monitoring. 70 % of purchases are motivated by the presence of various problems when only 21 % are “pleasure” purchases. Whether a more up -to -date operating system or components tired by timenone of these problems can be exactly insoluble, but the democratization of reparation and long -term guarantees are struggling to impose themselves in a world where manufacturers often treat these subjects a little too light.

Always in terms of good news, the phones reconditioned and used are slowly starting to make their hole with 21 % of the population turning with a second -hand smartphone. A evolution certainly slow (+2 points since 2022), But which has accelerated in recent years.

Unfortunately, the accumulation of devices is still a problem. France has an average of 9.6 equipment with screen per household, 1.8 of which are not used. Among these abandoned devices, there are mainly smartphones kept “in case”, but also tablets or connected watches that take dust.

Class disparities

Note that the stretched renewal times and the more frequent recourse to the reconditioned mobiles are pulled up by the most precarious people. Among the “low incomes”, 28 % of respondents bought a reconditioned phone, while only 14 % of “high incomes” respondents made this effort.

Ditto when you look at the reasons for renewal. If “constrained” purchases are in the majority in all strata of the population, 27 % of high incomes still give in to the purchase of “pleasure” (dictated by envy) when only 17 % of the population classified among the low incomes.

The Aĝe also plays a role with young people from 12 to 24 more readily opting for the reconditioned and giving up more willingly to the purchase of pleasure than their parents. More than ecological motivations, it is much more the economic constraints that seem behind this dynamic of more reasoned consumption.