It seems like we’re just now starting to see the impact Apple’s iPhone 7 release has had on the secondary smartphone market. And yet, the latest-and-greatest iPhone is coming quickly.

Details about the iPhone 8 are still unclear, but it’s never too early to predict how the secondary market will react to the Q4 influx of used devices and trade-ins.

With consumers trading-in their mobile devices more frequently when they purchase new ones, wireless carriers, retailers and OEMs have taken notice and started to include the sale of pre-owned devices in their promotional efforts.

For customers to qualify for some of the best deals for new devices, they must know how to trade-in their old devices.

After years of collaborating with OEMs to create Google-branded Nexus devices, Google has gone the way of Apple and decided to make its own hardware. 

Since Apple and Google released their flagship hardware in September and October 2016, respectively, the debates have raged on—should you buy an iPhone 7 or a Pixel?

A mobile device trade-in program isn’t a mysterious operation that should be analyzed with guesswork or even trepidation. Such a program can indeed be scrutinized like any other transactional business process. 

Surely, your business has all the angles down when reviewing other types of store sales, expenses, employee performance and other key performance indicators (KPI).

A few weeks ago, Stephanie Atkinson offered a comprehensive overview of the trade-in deals available to consumers  lookingfor an iPhone 7 upgrade.

Unfortunately, the “free iPhone 7 with iPhone 6/6s trade-in” deals at the 4 major carriers are already done.

Mobile buyback programs are emerging as an increasingly popular win-win for service providers, resellers, and consumers. Customers who trade-in their old devices receive a sizeable credit toward a new device, and service providers can recoup some of the money spent on upgrade promotions in the second-hand market. Over the years, several trade-in channels have become popular paths for consumers, with each offering a different pricing model. Understanding where you fit in the four major tiers of trade-in programs is essential to determining the prices you can offer.