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Over $2.2 billion returned to U.S. consumers in 2018 through mobile trade-ins

HYLA Mobile, a provider of software technology and services for mobile device trade-in and reuse solutions, says mobile device trade-in programs successfully returned more than $2.26 billion to U.S. consumers in 2018. 

With trade-in programs delivering an additional $110 million to consumers than in 2017, HYLA’s data reveals the growing popularity of trade-in programs, with consumers, carriers, retailers and manufacturers all realizing the latent value in devices. Key findings from the report reveal that:

  • Consumers holding onto their devices is a trend that continues; the average age of a smartphone at trade-in in 2018 was 2.77 years, a rise from 2.59 years in 2017 and 2.38 years in 2016

  • The average value of an iPhone at trade-in in 2018 was $157.57, while an Android was $62.05. The average value of an iPhone at trade-in has increased from $149.11 in 2017 and $142.55 in 2016.

  • The Galaxy S7 was the top traded Samsung device in every quarter of 2018.

  • For the third year in a row, the iPhone 6 was the top traded device. Out of the five top traded devices, it made up 30.52% of device trade-ins.

  • The device with the highest trade-in value in 2018 was the iPhone Xs Max at $586.58.

While the market is seeing prices of new devices rising, models are also losing their value quickly. The iPhone Xx Max, for example, had the highest trade-in value in 2018 at $586.58, while at the same time the smartphone had lost 59.52% of its retail value since its launch in September. The Google Pixel 2 was released in 2017 and lost half of its trade-in value in 2018. The iPhone 8 on the other hand, which was released in the same year, only lost 28% of its value in 2018.



“This is all the more reason for consumers to trade-in their devices at the time of upgrade, rather than hang on to a depreciating model,” says Biju Nair, president and CEO of HYLA Mobile. “The retail price of new high-end devices is not decreasing, so obtaining a higher trade-in value helps subsidize the price of the new purchase. Trade-ins have proven to be the best antidote for a slowing device sales cycle.”

The company’s Trade-In Industry Trends 2018 Annual Summary combines live market data with data from its own analytics solutions, which helps carriers and manufacturers determine trade-in values to be offered to consumers, as well as the disposition prices for these devices in the secondary market. 

Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Dennis Sellers is the editor/publisher of Apple World Today. He’s been an “Apple journalist” since 1995 (starting with the first big Apple news site, MacCentral). He loves to read, run, play sports, and watch movies.