Recent research suggests that iPhone 11 owners top the list of those trading in their device in order to buy the latest model from the iPhone 13 series. The analysis was performed by gathering and studying data on tens of thousands of iPhone trade-ins within the past couple of weeks.
The company behind the research called SellCell (via 9to5Mac) offers a pre-launch price lock-in that allows one to get a trade-in price that’s immune to the slashing of prices as a result of the release of a newer model. The old phone can then be sent to SellCell after customers get their new phone.
As we can see from the above chart, the iPhone 11 tops the table with 18% of the total amount of trade-ins done in the last two weeks (27th August to 10th September). The reason for this is that the iPhone 11 has now been available for two years. This means that 24-month cellphone contracts, which are quite common nowadays, are ending, thus causing the spike in iPhone 11 trade-ins.
The iPhone XR isn’t too far behind with a figure of 14%. With smartphones being upgraded every three to four years on an average presently, this doesn’t come as a surprise. After all, the XR was launched back in 2018.
What does come as a surprise though is that the iPhone 12 Pro Max is being traded in almost as much as the iPhone XR. It ranks number three in the table with a trade-in percentage of 14%. SellCell thinks this is because the iPhone 12 Pro Max has momentarily recovered some of its lost resale value. The implication of this is that iPhone 12 Pro Max owners are getting rid of their devices because of the unnaturally high resale value, which will be dipping once again post Apple iPhone 13 series launch.
