When the iPhone first debuted nine years ago, it took the world by storm. The sleek phone not only sold out, but it created an entirely new market and demand for phone accessories and even pushed mobile carriers to create networks that could manage the data demands.
At eBay, we’ve seen the impact of the iPhone – everyday consumers selling phones. Our consumers are making extra cash to upgrade to the next generation, exporting phones across geographies and due to the scarcity of some of the phones – driving high prices for the hottest models (two words: gold iPhone).
As we anticipate the launch of the new iPhone, eBay DataLabs has taken a look at historical trends, highlighting what shoppers should look out for.
Location, location, location.
Location matters. In 2016, we found that the average iPhone sale price varied by each country. In the U.S., when looking at all iPhone sales (all models, new and used) buyers typically paid around $244 dollars, compared to Chinese who paid the most at $399. Germans paid the second most at $314. Israelis placed third averaging $312.
We got even more granular when it comes to cities. Take San Francisco and its neighboring cities. Even with our data we can see San Francisco tend to be early adopters and are paying the highest price for phones, when compared to the rest of the Bay Area despite the fact it has the same amount of Apple stores than the Peninsula and South Bay.
In the graphic above, a darker green dot indicates higher prices. Larger dots indicate more sold iPhones from 1/1-16 – 8/11/16 (all versions).
Will the techies of San Francisco continue to pay premium for iPhones? We will certainly keep an eye out to see how much San Franciscans are planning to spend during this next release.
Size matters.
As consumers line up for the next iPhone, they have to take into consideration all the options that they will be given when they get to purchase – color, phone size, GB. As we all know, every other year is the introduction to something big. Take the introduction of the iPhone 5 when we said hello to LTE and three storage types to choose from. When we didn’t think things could get any bigger, the iPhone 6 was introduced with the option of 128GB.
When we took a look at all the options to consider we notice that the iPhone 6 64GB has held more value from Day 1 among eBay sellers so is bigger actually better?
Show me the Money.
As consumers sell their old models to upgrade to the new iPhone, they also want to know how to get the most for their money. Where do I sell? How do I know how much it’s worth? Do people even want an older phone?
As all these questions are running through consumers’ minds we took a look at market share over the past five years.
From October 2015 to June 2016, the iPhone 5s has been the best seller despite the release of the iPhone 6s in September 2015. Prior to that, the iPhone 5 held strong for four quarters while the iPhone 6 was released.
Don’t discount all those old phones you have in your drawer at home they can still make you some money to purchase that new iPhone come September.
Visit this page to sell your phone or shop for all your smartphone needs, and see the iPhone infographic below.
