I recently had the opportunity to speak on the topic of data monetization at the 2020 MIT Chief Data Officer and Information Quality Symposium (MIT CDOIQ). This summit, now in its 14^th year, has long been a place for leaders in data science and analytics to share their insights regarding new technologies and trends at every scale and across every industry.

Each quarter, we analyze millions of data points about the mobile device trade-in market. Our research uncovers insights into the most-traded devices, the devices with the highest trade-in values, the total amount of money returned to consumers in the United States, the average value of traded devices, and more.

The effort to manufacture and sell smartphones is a truly global effort. From design to sale, one can expect a smartphone to have already traveled halfway around the world, which in recent months, has been an impossibility for people, let alone smartphones. 

The secondary market for mobile devices continues to grow, giving you a significant opportunity to strengthen your revenue streams. By 2023, IDC predicts that the market for used smartphones will be worth $67 billion.

The data is clear. Millions of people have lost their jobs, businesses have been closed, and it’s not clear whether jobs will return. Amidst all of this, carriers, retailers, and OEMs need to keep selling phones in order to keep their own workforce employed. How do companies drive the consumption of new devices during a recession?

We are now five months on since the first Coronavirus cases were reported, and while no one could have imagined the devastating impact the virus has had on the world, we are at a stage where some restrictions are being relaxed to try and bring back some form of normality—whether that is extending hours allowed outside or encouraging shops, beaches and parks to reopen.

As of this writing, the pandemic situation may be starting to look up a little. This has prompted many states to gradually relax their social distancing guidelines, allowing certain businesses – including carrier stores – to reopen.

On its face, this seems like good news for the telecom industry, especially since the vast majority of smartphone sales happen to take place during face-to-face retail transactions. The problem emerges when you consider that even though states and governors are bullish about restarting the economy, the public is understandably wary about returning to in-person commerce.

When we started planning this blog, we’d intended to offer some generalized advice about promoting online sales of mobile devices. While online is a vastly important channel for carriers, OEMs and retailers, it still only a small percentage of total new smartphone sales. The vast majority of phones were still sold in retail stores.

The unresponsive touchscreen, a flash of light and then the black screen: all things a mobile phone owner has experienced at the death of a device.

Those little signs of a phone losing life fill any technology addict with utter despair as they swing between “I hope it just run out of battery” to the realization they might have to replace it.

Each quarter, we take unique data from our analytics platform to analyze device trade-in trends across the North American market. Our data analyzes trade-in value of devices, the top traded smartphones, as well as the average age of smartphones at the point of trade-in.