In a recent report, it has been revealed that smartphones may lose half their initial value in a month’s time, which is even less than the value at which vehicles depreciate.
A report by musicMagpie.co.uk pointed out that cars depreciated in value by 20 per cent after a year in comparison to a smartphone which went down by approximately 65 per cent of their value in just a month’s time after their release.
The report also suggested that iPhones depreciate much less in comparison to Android devices—the iPhone 4 continues to retail 39 per cent of its value even after five years after its launch; the iPhone 6 (16GB) managed to retain 50 per cent of its value even after a year from its release.
On the other hand, the iPhone 5 dipped significantly in terms of depreciation, losing 66 per cent of its value just after eight months of release. Moving on to Android devices, the Samsung Galaxy S4, released in 2014, lost half its value within two months of being launched in the market.
The most affected by the blitz of depreciation is the HTC One M9, which has suffered the most in the Android-based handset category. In a month it lost 65 per cent of its initial market value of $826.
The key reason for this rapid depreciation is due to the rapid inception of faster and superior models. With so many releases on a monthly basis, smartphones are bound to lose more value than most commodities.
However, when it comes to a unique device or one which is high on demand, the depreciation does take a tad more time to kick in. Inversely, if there is less demand for a smartphone, the value depreciates much faster.
