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.

It’s difficult to understand how many smartphones are purchased online versus how many are purchased in brick-and-mortar stores. However, it’s easy to infer based on two other statistics. First, global demand for smartphones is slowing, and secondly, retail and electronics sales have also shown a sharp decline as of October 2019.

Each quarter we analyze the millions of data points we’ve acquired and filtered from the mobile device trade-in market. Our research examines data about the most-traded devices, the devices with the highest trade-in values, the total amount of money returned to consumers in the United States, and the average value of traded devices.

As consumers continue to hold onto their devices for longer periods of time, it’s more important than ever to build out a comprehensive data analytics program. But if you’ve been running a mobile device trade-in program for years, you already know how data can help you grow your program.

Carriers and mobile device retailers aren’t immune to general trends in consumer behavior and customer experience. Like in any other industry, the mobile device industry has to embrace an increasingly digital buyer’s journey. What used to be exclusively a brick-and-mortar process has evolved into an omnichannel experience that spans desktop websites, apps, mobile sites, and more.

Now that equipment installment plans (EIPs) have become the predominant way for consumers to buy new mobile devices, consumers are holding on to their devices much longer.  As a result, analytics play an ever-increasing role in understanding how to entice trade-ins and price them when they come in to maximize the value of both the device and customer relationship.

In the mobile and telecoms industry, February is dedicated to one thing—Mobile World Congress (MWC). As the world’s largest event for the mobile industry, attracting over 100,000 attendees and more than 2,300 exhibitors, MWC is an event that simply cannot be missed.

For nearly a decade, Big Box Retailers like Best Buy and Walmart have been aggressively pursuing mobile phone sales. At this point, smartphones make up a significant portion of revenue.

It seems like everyone has had "that" friend at some point in their lives. The one who stretches the limits of a “friends and family” discount at their place of work.

We might think this is harmless enough—after all, will a company really notice such a minor exception to the rule?

But no matter how you look at it, this is a form of fraud.

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.