Survey sheds light on the fate of older smartphones

The smartphone industry seldom dwells on the past and its main focus is almost always on the latest and greatest devices the market has to offer. As a result, the tech community rarely (if ever at all) considers the fate of the older handsets, which are left behind when users have decided to upgrade.

So what do we do with our older smartphones? This was precisely the main topic of the latest survey carried out by CIRP (Consumer Intelligence Research Partners). Usually, most of the latter’s surveys tend to center on Apple products, but this time around Android devices have also been added to the mix.

The results, first covered by 9to5Mac in a dedicated article, showcase that older iPhones and Android devices have very different fates. According to the source, 43% of iPhone users traded in their older devices. In contrast, only 14% of Android consumers did the same. The likeliest reason for this disparity is probably linked with the fact that Apple smartphones tend to retain higher trade-in values than their Android counterparts.

Another interesting trend is that more than half of Android users decided to keep their old devices (i.e. 54%). For the iPhone group, that percentage is just 23%. Additionally, 7% of respondents sold their iPhones, 13% gave them away to a friend or a family member, while 6% decided to recycle their old handsets.

For the Android group, the numbers are 4%, 11% and 9% respectively. In both groups, 8% of users reported that their previous smartphones were either stolen or broken.

It is interesting to see how these dynamics will evolve over time. After all, given how good smartphones have become, most modern handsets can now last much more than the usual 2 years. By extension, finding a good way of dealing with older (but functional) devices will become increasingly more important.