REPAIRING INSTEAD OF REPLACING
That trend has fuelled demand for repair services.
Retailer Litemobile handles between 4,000 and 5,000 phones each month across its seven outlets, with battery replacements the most common job, followed by screen and charging-port repairs.
"Usually after two years, they will change the battery and then they'll continue using it," said the company’s director Desmond Goi.
"But after four years, due to newer updates, OS (operating system) updates, older phones might not be able to support the software, so they will have no choice (but) to change."
Mister Mobile, which according to its website operates 20 outlets islandwide, has seen a similar shift towards repairs. Such jobs across its branches increased by 46 per cent between 2023 and 2025, and are up a further 12 per cent so far this year.
Mister Mobile currently handles about 7,000 repairs on a monthly basis, said CEO Alan Tan.
Most repairs involve phones that are between three and five years old.
The firm said a simple battery replacement could extend an older phone's lifespan by another year or two, allowing consumers to get more use out of their devices while avoiding the cost of buying a new one.
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