The current mobile business model in mobile devices market is costing a lot both the manufacturer and the environment, due to its frequent upgrades. An investigation led by the University of Surrey analysed the life cycle of mobile devices, from the manufacture and use until the disposal, to understand the impact of the different stages on the environment.

The research identified that frequent upgrades are encouraged but the same cannot be said about recycling schemes, resulting in the loss of many precious valuable materials and the consequent need of obtaining new ones. This situation damages the environment adding waste and reducing the number of finite resources through continue extractions.

The lead author of the study, Dr James Suckling from the University of Surrey, explained: “There are an estimated 85 million unused phones in the UK. […] Each of these phones has been manufactured using precious metals such as gold, copper and silver, which are costly to extract, both in cash-terms and environmental impact. These unused phones contain approximately 4 tonnes of gold, lost resource that would cost £110million and an equivalent of 84,000 tonnes of CO2 released into the atmosphere to replace.”

The researchers analysed the entire problem focusing on the business model behind it. Dr Suckling explains: “The current business model of mobile contracts encourages consumers to upgrade frequently, regardless of whether their current phone is fit for purpose. Our study shows that there is little incentive for people to recycle old mobiles. Unfortunately this leaves many unused devices lingering in drawers, until they are eventually thrown away and end up in landfill. This isn’t a trend that can continue if we are to have the mobile lifestyle we want, while still ensuring a sustainable future.”

In their study, the researchers propose an alternative to the current system. The idea concerns a ‘could-based product service system’ in which the heavy processing and memory storage of mobile tools and devices are moved to a remote server, over the Internet. Avoiding the necessity of complex processing phases, mobile devices could become simpler, last longer and, most important, require less precious and non-renewable resources to be created. It could be emphasized the importance of a “take-back” clause to the mobile services contract, in order to involve people not only to keep their device for longer, but also to return it to the manufacturer on the expiration of the contract. This would be useful to allow the resources used to create the mobile phones to be retained instead of lost to the landfill.

The model has been inspired by a precedent similar use as explained by Dr Sucklings: “This is a model that has been used already. Replacing power hungry desktop PCs with thin client computers that run off cloud services, with less hardware reduced power consumption by up to 55%.”

Dr Sucklings then added a reflection on the entire situation sharing his ideas: “There are of course other challenges to overcome. Our research team is now looking at how to implement such business models while convincing consumers that cloud services can be trusted to deliver services, and hold data privately and securely. This will be one important focus for our continuing research, as will be understanding the wider impact of the mobile lifecycle on the environment and what impact new business models will have on this cycle.”

Written by: Pietro Paolo Frigenti