Abstract
•Participants overvalue hibernating phones, increasingly over time.•Participants store smartphones longer if market offers lack motivation.•They become more willing to sell smartphones as perceived value aligns with market.
Each year, a significant number of smartphones are retired, yet retained by consumers. These hibernating smartphones have the reuse potential for another lifecycle. Nonetheless, they often stay in storage for a long time and may ultimately face inadequate recovery. This study explores consumers’ perceptions regarding the value of hibernating smartphones over time. It examines the influence of factors such as the duration of smartphone storage and monetary incentives on users’ decision-making regarding the End-of-Hibernation (EoH). The findings demonstrate that, on average, participants perceive the value of a newly retired smartphone to be 28% higher than its market value. This perceived value increases to 83% after three years since the smartphone’s retirement. Participants’ tendency to keep a hibernating smartphone increases as the gap between the monetary incentive and their perceived value of the device increases. Conversely, the longer the smartphone stays in hibernation, the less inclined users are to keep it.