End of Life iPhones Have More Profitable Options than Androids

Last week we saw that iPhone owners hold onto their phones considerably longer than Android phone owners. Despite retiring older phones, the iPhone owners still seem to have better options for the disposition of those old phones. 

CIRP asks new phone buyer survey subjects what they did with their previous phone. Phone buyers have a range of options for their old phone, including giving it to a friend or family member, trading it in, or selling it to an independent marketplace. Some keep an old phone as a backup. And others find themselves with broken phones that they dispose of or recycle, or sadly, without a phone at all, after their phone is lost or stolen. We classify these alternatives into three categories:

• Retained: given to a friend or family member, or kept as a backup

• Sold or traded-in: to Apple, a carrier, or to a third-party marketplace

• Disposed: lost, stolen, broken, recycled, or donated

A significant percentage of iPhone owners turn their old phone into money. 41% sold or traded-in their old smartphone, and fewer than 20% disposed of it (Chart 1). In comparison, only 17% of Android owners sold or traded-in their old phone and about 30% disposed of them.