Apple's iPhone 4S and 5 may have been one of the most popular smartphones of 2012 but that hasn't stopped customers cashing in on their previous models.
Apple products amassed to a huge 49% of the online gadget trade-in market in 2012, according to data compiled by comparemymobile.com, an independent recycling comparison site servicing £40million of gadget trade-ins since its launch in 2009.
Nearly half of gadgets traded in last year were Apple devices, with Samsung coming miles behind in second place with 18.5% of the market. BlackBerry had 12%, with Nokia owning 8% and HTC 5%.
Astonishingly, the average price of a recycled gadget has risen 570% since 2007, with the average recycled gadget getting £114, 31% up on 2011 prices.
The results have been accumulated using data, surveys and reviews from more than two million users of comparemymobile.com, between January and December last year, on gadgets including: Mobile phones, Digital cameras, Games consoles, iPads, Tablets, Kindles, iPods, Laptops/Macbook and Sat Navs.
The results show that two of the top five gadgets traded in during 2012 were Apple products, with the iPhone 4 16GB covering 17% of devices that were sold, and the iPhone 3GS 16GB taking 7% of the market. The BlackBerry 8520 was the third most traded-in, with the Samsung S and S2 taking fourth and fifth.
Unsurprisingly Apple dominated the mobile phone chart too; the iPhone 5 64GB was deemed the most valuable phone in 2012 at £410, whilst the 32GB and 16GB version were valued at £390 and £377 respectively, and it was the introduction of the iPhone 5 that undoubtedly had a huge effect on the number of iPhone devices being traded in last year. The release of Apple’s latest mobile device led to a massive 367% spike in iPhone trade-ins between the beginning of September and the beginning of October, following the unveiling of the iPhone 4S’ successor.
Meanwhile, Apple will be pleased at the price retention of the iPad. Data shows that the iPad was the strongest investment in 2012, losing just 8.7% of its value on average in the 12 months of 2012, considerably less than the 30% average loss in value of the Samsung Galaxy Tab during the same period.
