Portland

IT is payback time for handset makers that long profited from Americans' tendency to upgrade their mobile phones early and often.

US consumers got a taste for phone financing two years ago and never looked back. They bought fancy new devices for a few more dollars a month with no service contract attached. Now, they are holding on to their old smartphones longer than they did when they signed two-year contracts and got freebies, spelling further trouble for manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics Co and HTC Corp that have struggled with declining sales.