When you buy a new phone, what should you do with the old phone that has been with you for two years?
Xiaolei believes that the vast majority of consumers will choose to sell it on second-hand e-commerce platforms, and if they are troublesome, they will directly choose to trade in the old. But in Xiaolei's own experience, the recycling price of old mobile phones is difficult to make people satisfied, obviously he spent six or seven thousand yuan to buy back the flagship machine, how come after a year or two there are only less than 3,000?
(Image source: Photographed by Lei Technology)
Coincidentally, last year, BankMyCell, a foreign market statistics agency, released the 2021-2022 mobile phone depreciation report, which pointed out that the average depreciation rate of the iPhone after four years was 20.5%, while that of Android was 34.44%, but the gap between the two reached nearly 20% in the first year, 13.83% for iPhone and 32.06% for Android. It shows that the gap in the retention rate between Android and Apple is quite large, of course, even if it is the same Android mobile phone, the retention rate of different brands is not the same, and the retention rate of some brands can be opened with Apple.
However, data is data, is the domestic second-hand mobile phone market really like this?
Second-hand market, Apple Huawei is still king?
The so-called "don't search don't know, a search is shocked", Xiaolei was surprised to find that the iPhone actually has "privileges" on the second-hand trading platform. When Xiaolei searches for iPhone 14 Pro, the platform will not only give the usual price page, but also "intimately" classify the memory version and color under the search bar, and you can quickly find the second-hand iPhone you want with just one click, while the rest of the products do not have this "service".
(Image source: Lei Technology Mapping)
As for the price, taking the hottest iPhone 14 Pro purple 256G version as an example, first of all, the official website is priced at 8899 yuan, which is a big expense for the vast majority of consumers.
Now we only need to spend about 6,500 yuan on a second-hand platform to buy an iPhone 14 Pro with a condition of more than 95 new (of course, this is just the seller's rhetoric), complete packaging accessories and under warranty, with a retention rate of about 73%. Of course, we can't just look at the price of the official website, for example, the price on the third-party e-commerce platform is 7329 yuan, and the depreciation rate is 88%.
(Image source: Lei Technology Mapping)
The color is also almost new, and the 1T top version is also under warranty, and the second-hand price is around 9,000 yuan (National Bank), which is 3,499 yuan lower than the initial price of 12,499 yuan on the official website, and the retention rate is 72%, which is almost the same as the most popular 256G version. The price of the third-party platform is 10,559 yuan, and the depreciation rate is 85%.
If compared with the third-party price, the price of the second-hand platform actually has no advantage, but it can also be seen that the entire market is still quite optimistic about the second-hand recycling price of the iPhone.
Let's take another look at the Mate 50 series released last year, the Mate series is one of the few true flagship series recognized by the market, so its retention rate is also very outrageous. The Mate40 series released in 2020 can still maintain a very high retention rate two years after its release, which can be described as terrifying.
So how does the Mate 50 series perform?
On the second-hand platform, the second-hand price of the 8+256G version of Mate 50 Pro with good color and complete accessories is about 3800-4000 yuan, combined with its 6799 yuan first price can calculate the retention rate of about 58%, compared with the iPhone 14 Pro does have a certain gap.
(Image source: Lei Technology Mapping)
The performance of the top version of the Mate 50 RS is more "miserable", the first price of 12,999 yuan of it, now with more than 8,000 yuan can be obtained, nearly 5,000 yuan cheaper, the retention rate is only 61%.
When Xiao Lei saw this result, he didn't believe it to be honest, after all, the Mate 40 series can be a "legend" that is only two thousand yuan cheaper in two years. Perhaps the Mate50 series, which lacks 5G network support, is indeed not so attractive to consumers.
Next is known as Xiaomi's most successful high-end impact - Xiaomi 12S Ultra. As for why it is successful, from the release to the removal, the official has not lowered the official price, which is the first time in the history of Xiaomi mobile phones.
So what is its retention rate?
(Image source: Lei Technology Mapping)
Now on the second-hand platform, the price of the 12+512G version of Xiaomi 12S Ultra is about 3800 yuan, while its initial price is 6999 yuan, and the retention rate is only 54%. This price is almost a waist-cut, and it took a loss to sell a Redmi K60 top configuration (16+1T version) directly after selling it in the previous year.
Of course, as mentioned earlier, the treatment method of the old machine is not only to hang the second-hand platform for sale, if it is troublesome, you can also go directly to the recycling platform or the old for new activities officially launched by the mobile phone. Not to mention that manufacturers such as OPPO and vivo will also pay their own pockets to send users replacement subsidies to achieve a real win-win situation.
So in this link, let's take the OPPO Find X6 Pro, which currently has the highest trade-in subsidy, as an example, to see how much money can be exchanged for the three flagships mentioned earlier, and will the retention rate change? (iPhone 14 Pro is the 256G version, the other two are top-of-the-line)
Directly speaking of the result, the performance of Xiaomi 12S Ultra surprised Xiaolei, even if the subsidized price is only about 4200 yuan, the retention rate is 60%, and if you want to replace the new machine, you have to post an additional 2765 yuan; Huawei Mate 50 Pro's performance is slightly better, plus the subsidized price after there is a 5100 yuan or so, the retention rate is 65%, can only be said to be better than Xiaomi's performance, but not much better; Finally, the iPhone 14 Pro, its trade-in price reached 6121 yuan, plus the official subsidy of 1100 yuan, after the replacement can even get more than 200 yuan, this retention rate has reached 80%, if it is purchased by a third-party platform, the retention rate has reached almost 100%, which can only be said to be very outrageous.
(Image source: Lei Technology Mapping)
Seeing this, everyone can also understand that although Android flagships have indeed been recognized by the market and consumers in the past two years, due to the rapid iteration of models and the increasing number of competing products at the same price, the retention rate is still difficult to compare with the iPhone. The same is to spend about 8,000 yuan to buy a mobile phone, the iPhone may lose more than 2,000 after a year, Android flagships are basically cut in half, for those digital enthusiasts who often change new machines, it is a loss-making business.
In fact, as an electronic consumable, the price reduction and depreciation of mobile phones are inevitable, otherwise there would not be so many and so on party existence now.
When will the myth of Apple's undefeated be broken?
According to the statistics of a well-known domestic second-hand trading platform, in the second-hand trading market, the top ten models in the mobile phone trading volume, search volume and recycling list are all iPhones, accounting for 34.79% of the transaction volume, ranking first, that is to say, one out of every three and two mobile phones is an iPhone.
As for why the iPhone retains its value, in addition to the factors of the original brand influence, the most important thing is that Apple adheres to the strategy of one machine a year. Before the official launch of the next iPhone, Apple officials rarely reduce product prices, which other manufacturers cannot do anyway.
A report released by mobile market SellCell shows that the iPhone 14 series is depreciating much faster than the iPhone 13 series. The iPhone 14 series is worth an average of 5.7% less than the iPhone 13 series after six months.
(Image source: Apple's official website)
This means that the overall product recognition of the iPhone 14 series is not high, at least not as exaggerated as the original iPhone 13 series, Xiaolei also found after the investigation that since the release of the iPhone 14 series, the iPhone 13 series in the second-hand market has risen slightly, and the experience is similar to the product at a lower price, which is also what most consumers will choose.
As for when Apple's retention rate myth will be broken, Xiaolei can not easily conclude now, for now, Android wants to have the same retention rate as the iPhone is almost impossible, but as Apple squeezes toothpaste more and more serious, the market and consumers will definitely teach Apple a good lesson.