The report demonstrates that SIM Only contracts are amongst the top 5 best-selling mobile phone contracts during the past 8 months, with sales increasing by over 400% during the period.
“It is clear that having the latest mobile phone is still important to many customers,” Michael Brown, Mobilephones.com’s industry expert states, “However, getting the best deal at the lowest price possible has now overtaken the need to have the latest phone, meaning users are holding onto their old handsets for longer”.
Mobilephones.com has concluded that with SIM Only contracts starting from just £2.90 per month, people are realising that they could save substantial amounts by continuing to use their existing handsets instead of upgrading to a newer model.
Observers have also suggested that with mobile phones being as technologically innovative as they are today, upgrading to the newest handset no longer offers the same benefits as it did years ago. For instance, there is less incentive for users to upgrade from a Samsung Galaxy S3 to a Samsung Galaxy S4 because there are far fewer dramatic changes between the two devices to make it financially worthwhile for the customer.