“Many iPhone users have a simple incentive to upgrade to the latest model once their two-year contract expires: They can sell the old model for roughly the cost of the new one,” Quentin Fottrell reports for MarketWatch. “Here’s the surprising thing: iPad owners, who aren’t on two-year contracts, and don’t have the same incentives, are upgrading even more often.”
“Apple just announced its new iPad Air,” Fottrell reports. “But many of the people offering their current models up for sale on resale sites only purchased their devices in the past 12 to 18 months, according to new research by resale sites Gazelle and NextWorth.”
“After Apple sent out invitations to the launch, the most recent two iPad upgrades (from 2012) made up 64% of all iPad trade-ins at Gazelle,” Fottrell reports. “The latest iPad models released in November 2012 comprised 34% of the models traded in, while the March 2012 iPad made up less than that (30%). Last year’s iPads made up 54% of all trade-ins on NextWorth, more than half of which were the iPad 4 and iPad Mini… Used 32 gigabyte iPad 4s are currently selling on eBay for approximately $450 versus $599 for a new version.”
Read more in the full article here.