PriceTRAX data has been used to track retail price depreciation for specific smartphones in our recently published database extract: What's It Worth? This methodology has also been applied to determine the effect of branding on smartphone retail value (based on PAYG and unsubsidized prices for OEM portfolios).

Apple iPhones are sound investments for end users, showing negligable depreciation during the first 18 month of their lifecycle, sliding -25% in the 6 months between 22 and 28 months of age, but still maintaining a clear price differentiation from their counterparts. Nokia's smartphones appear to depreciate within a month of release, and HTC's handsets after 3 months. RIM's smartphones hold their value during the first 10 months of availability, followed by quick devaluation. Samsung's pricing strategy is more interesting; attracting a 10% discount on introduction with average retail price peaking 1 month after release, however results in a net depreciation higher than the rival OEMs at -50% (from maximum retail price).

Smartphones have a retail lifecycle of over 2 years, however by this time their value has reduced by approx -40% for most brands. Apple enjoys slower depreciation, however their portfolio is exclusively premium smartphones. A vendor's refresh rate for handsets will impact on the retail value of existing products, this will be the focus of a later extract.

This is just one of many ways to analyse PriceTRAX data, PriceTRAX clients have access to over 5 million pricing datapoints for smartphones, mobile phones and tablets (including historic pricing back to May 2010 and up to the current day) which continues to grow weekly; to contact a member of the PriceTRAX team to discuss this extensive market intelligence resource CLICK HERE, or TRY PriceTRAX for yourself.