In the smartphone world, Apple’s iPhones have a lot of value. It is why generally speaking, they hold their trade-in values and are also more lucrative for smartphone thieves. However, that narrative may be changing, where recent trade-in data suggests that Samsung phones could be holding its value better than the iPhone.
This is according to a report from SellCell where they analyzed the trade-in data from over 40 vendors. According to the data, it seems that after two weeks of launching, the iPhone 16 series saw an average depreciation percentage of 41.2%. This is versus the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 which depreciated by about 33% and 33.2% respectively.
Taking a look at the longer term of a year, the iPhone 15 lost 48.2%, the iPhone 14 47.7%, and the iPhone 13 46.2%. All of this seems to suggest that over the years, Apple’s iPhones are losing more value than before. So what about Samsung? According to the data, over 12 months, the Galaxy S23 Ultra lost 63.9%, while the Galaxy S22 Ultra lost 68.1%.
Samsung’s phones are definitely losing more value compared to the iPhone, but the trend seems to suggest that Samsung phones are actually starting to hold their value better than the iPhone. Will there come a time when Apple’s iPhones actually lose more value than Samsung? That remains to be seen, but for now, it’s an interesting trend.