Indeed, according to Assurant’s latest report on this topic, second-hand resold phones brought in almost $3 billion to their former owners in the year 2021. It’s important to note that this figure, steadily rising year on year, was particularly marked by the last quarter of this year which saw a rise in phone resales of 40% compared to the third quarter of 2021.
A record increase in the last months of the year
In 2020, these revenues were estimated at $2.64 billion, in the last quarter alone the second-hand market brought in more than $1 billion.
If you dig into the details of Assurant’s report, it’s easy to see that the phones that are most likely to be resold are the ones that make the most money. At the top of the list are the iPhone XR, “entry-level” phones for the Apple brand, which accounted for more than 30% of resales during the year 2021.
Right after the Apple phone, another iPhone, the 11, followed by the 8, the 8 Plus and finally the X. Of the first five places of the best reselling phones in the world, all come from Cupertino. But the other interesting information is the price at which these phones are resold.
A second-hand iPhone is worth $200, an Android half
And here again, the domination of the apple brand over the rest of the market is quite obvious. The Cupertino company’s phones resell for an average of $199, according to Assurant’s report, which estimates that Android phones had a significantly lower average resale price, around $100. A price which therefore varies from simple to double, a constant in recent years, Assurant recalling that this was already the case in 2020 and 2019.
According to the company behind this report, the world of resale should still see very substantial growth, while telephone operators in particular are doing more and more marketing to switch their customers to 5G. The latter will therefore be required to change their phones in the coming months, and therefore to resell the old one.
