Samsung Overtakes Apple to Become Top Traded-in Mobile Phone Brand 2014

If there was one trend which seemed prominent for phone manufacturers in 2013, it could certainly be seen as releasing as many phones as possible. Even Apple decided to release a cheaper alternative to its flagship smartphone, which seems a strange move for a brand which had previously focused on high-end pricing.
Apple was no competition for brands using Android though. The likes of HTC, Samsung and Sony brought out phones of the budget, mega, mini and damage-proof variety – in a bid to appeal to as many phone users as possible, whatever they wanted to use their devices for.

Samsung’s Galaxy range in particular seemed never-ending. The manufacturer revealed the Galaxy S4 Mega, S4 Mini, S4 Zoom, Note 3 – and I really could keep on going. But it seems that this stream of releases hasn’t just had an effect on Samsung’s sales.

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 has its very own collection. Image from Samsung.

Mobile phone recycling comparison site, CompareMyMobile, just revealed that Samsung has become the top traded-in mobile phone brand on the site – overtaking Apple for the first time since it launched back in 2009.

For the last five years, Apple has dominated the mobile phone trade-in market – making up almost 50 percent of all phone trade-ins in 2012. However, the latest site data shows that Apple now only has a 31.63 percent trade-in market share. Samsung devices currently make up 34.14 percent of all trade-ins, resulting in the smartphone maker sneaking ahead to become the top traded-in brand.

In fact, the top five traded-in handsets of 2014 were all Samsung and Apple devices:

1. Samsung Galaxy S3: 10.59 percent
2. Apple iPhone 4S 16GB: 8.47 percent
3. Apple iPhone 4 16GB: 6.39 percent
4. Samsung Galaxy S2 i9100: 6.2 percent
5. Apple iPhone 5 16GB: 5.53 percent

Although the difference between the two brands’ is not drastic, this is the first time that Apple hasn’t completely dominated the trade-in market – and the site say that this could reflect increasing competition in the smartphone market too.

Samsung’s Galaxy S3 is currently the top traded-in smartphone of 2014. Image from Digital Trends.

Recent reports show that Android devices made up 81 percent of all smartphones shipped in Q3 2013, while Apple’s iOS only made up around 12.9 percent. Experts argued that Apple probably aren’t too worried, as its sales still make up the majority of those in the smartphone sector – the fact that it sold nine million iPhone 5S and 5C handsets within the opening weekend of their release confirmed that in many ways.

However, Apple’s trade-in market share has decreased by almost 20 percent within just a year is definitely, suggesting that more people own non-Apple devices – and this is not a factor to be ignored.

Apple may be at the forefront of the game at the moment, but perhaps they shouldn’t expect to stay there. Other manufacturers, like Samsung, are providing more high-end technology which Apple is going to have to keep up with – especially when you consider that Apple isn’t really that far ahead in the first place, if at all. LG is already rumoured to be featuring fingerprint technology on all of its 2014 handsets. They may certainly have to worry if Samsung and LG start making advances with eye-scanning security too.

Do you think Apple can stay ahead of the consumer game? Or will Android devices start to form a crowd? Let us know.

Author bio: Sami Colenutt is a tech and Android enthusiast from the South Coast of England – always armed with her Galaxy S4.