With the effective start of the school year, smartphones, tablets and computers are used for several hours a day again, across school platforms, assignments, video calls and communication between families and schools. It is in this first week that problems appear that went unnoticed during the holidays, and it is here that one decides, almost always without much deliberation, whether a device remains in service or is replaced. Internal data from iServices show that requests for data transfers between smartphones and tablets grew by 69% in the first half of 2026, compared with the same period the previous year. For computers, this type of intervention increased by 71%.
The number may sound purely technical, but it describes a moment of decision. A device only changes hands within a family, or returns to the market as refurbished, after someone takes care of what is inside: photos, contacts, documents, email accounts, passwords, school apps and authentication systems. When this handover does not happen, the spare laptop stays in a drawer and a new one is bought. The obstacle to reuse is rarely the hardware.
What hinders reuse is inside the device
The remaining figures point in the same direction. In the first half, the set of technical interventions grew by 48%, smartphone sanitisation requests rose by 53% and technical interventions on these devices increased by 42%. Cleaning, updating, configuring and transferring are maintenance actions and have come to weigh as much as the most obvious repairs of screens, batteries and charging ports.
The environmental gain is almost entirely in the unseen phase. Most of the footprint of a smartphone or a laptop concentrates on production—between raw materials, energy, water and industrial processes—and not on use. Extending a device’s lifespan by another year or two helps avoid repeating that bill. A slow device is not necessarily at the end of life, and the gap between the two readings is often resolved with freed storage space, a system update, or a new battery.
A Simple Check Before Deciding to Buy
Before considering replacement, iServices recommends confirming battery life and proper charging operation, checking the available space for apps and school content, updating the operating system and apps, testing the camera, microphone, speakers and Wi-Fi connection, and ensuring that all data and credentials have been transferred before erasing the previous device. This last step is the one most often left behind and most costly to recover, because email accounts, passwords and authentication systems do not always come back on their own.
The company offers free, no-obligation diagnostics for smartphones, tablets, computers, and multi-brand smartwatches, and the store technicians perform data transfer, sanitisation, formatting and technical assistance for all brands. It also has take-back solutions, which allow assessing and delivering used equipment for reuse and facilitate access to refurbished models. With more than 150 stores and around 30 thousand repairs per month, most interventions are resolved in 20 to 30 minutes. In 2026, iServices renewed the Sustainable Choice seal.
Content in partnership with iServices.
