Holiday hand-me-ups

With the latest gadgets filling stockings around the country, Brits are finding a new home for their old technology this festive season. More than a quarter of Brits (26 per cent) have said that they will ‘hand up’ older technology and smartphones to their parents, according to new research from mobile operator Three.

This trend is even more apparent amongst young adults (18-24 year olds), with almost half (43 per cent) re-gifting their pre-loved smartphone and handing it up to Mum or Dad. Women are more likely than men to pass on an older smartphone to a parent (29 per cent) while most UK men would choose to give theirs to a friend instead (22 per cent). Just 4 per cent of the UK will donate their old smartphones to their “silver surfing” grandparents.

In previous years the market has seen sales of new smartphones almost double in the month of December, meaning over half a million pre-loved smartphones could be looking for a new home this Christmas. With SIM plans on Three starting from £6.90 per month, friends and family can take on hand-me-up smartphones with SIMs loaded up with data, minutes and texts, all on the network built for the internet.

For 50 per cent of Brits, the main reason they will pass on older technology to family and friends is because their existing device is ‘outdated’ and with purse strings tighter than ever at Christmas, a third of Brits (33 per cent) say they would like to help family and friends save money by giving them their older device. 10 per cent of under-35’s say the main reason they’ll hand-up a device to Mum and Dad is so they can access social networks on the go.

Sylvia Chind, Head of Devices at Three says, “Christmas is a time for giving and this research has found that Brits are making the most of their older technology and connecting Mum and Dad, siblings and friends to the mobile internet when they upgrade.

“As our customers take advantage of this to save family and friends time and money, we’re continually working to provide the best internet experience we can, made possible by the ongoing roll-out our Ultrafast network which now covers half of the UK’s population.”