As the battle for smartphone supremacy rages on between Apple and Samsung, there seems to be no limit to what each side will take a victory over. In this case, Gene Munster, an analyst for Piper Jaffray said Apple wins the competition for best phone to get rid of.
Munster believes the iPhone holds its value significantly better than most Samsung devices, making it the better choice for those looking for decent resale value down the line. According to CNET, over the four months from April through July, the iPhone 5 dropped 3.75 percent in value, the iPhone 4S dropped 11.85 percent. Meanwhile, the iPhone 4 jumped up in value by 10.3 percent. To put those numbers into perspective, Samsung's Galaxy S3 lost 27.3 percent of its value while its second best-selling smartphone, the Galaxy Note 2, dropped 35.5 percent.
The situation was similar in the Chinese markets. Since the beginning of April, the iPhone 5 dropped 7.2 percent in resale value, the iPhone 4S fell 14.3 percent, and the iPhone 4 grew by 1.4 percent. Meanwhile, the value of Samsung's Galaxy S4 fell 14.3 percent, the S3 by 24.1 percent and the Note 2 by 23.6 percent.
It's important to note that the research done by Munster does not provide a perfect example of the resale market. Most of the data is based solely on eBay sales in the U.S. and Taobao sales in China. Munster believes the reason for Apple keeping such a high resale value, especially in Chine where Android is the dominant mobile market, seems to be the fact that people simply believe the devices are worth it.
"Apple appears to be maintaining mindshare in the high end market," Munster said.
While this may sound like a trivial thing to factor in when purchasing a new phone, the new early upgrade plans from T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and AT&T mean smartphones will be upgraded, bought, sold and traded much more frequently, a phone that holds its value might be an incredibly worthwhile factor to look at.
