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.

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.

The impact that coronavirus has had on the world is truly shocking. It has robbed families of loved ones, disrupted global economies and generated tremendous levels of fear and anxiety. It has most certainly affected the global mobile device industry. Since the virus emanated in China, Chinese production lines for electronic devices have been significantly disrupted – factories and retail stores have closed while authorities work fast to stem its spread.

Customers are hanging onto their phones longer than ever, with the average consumer now waiting about 3 years before trading in their phones. What this means is that when a user finally does trade in their phone, it's hard drive potentially contains more information than ever – information that could be used to steal customer identities or commit other data crimes. Smartphone trade-ins might be a valuable source of revenue, but how can carrier, retailers and OEMs protect customer privacy?

Increasingly, your workforce cannot get their jobs done without mobile devices. Retail workers use mobile devices to check inventory in stores or check out customers at the front desk. Rideshare drivers use apps to track their mileage and get directions. Workers all over the country use their mobile devices to work remotely. Given that so many workers rely on mobile devices for their jobs, shouldn’t they have the best devices available?

Each quarter, we publish insights into the most-traded devices, which devices have the highest trade-in values, how old devices are when they’re returned, the amount of money returned to consumers through trade-in programs, and more. The Q4 2019 data can be reviewed here and shows this past quarter to be the strongest quarter of the year.

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.

Over the last couple of years, CES has been a central hub for all-things 5G. The hype has been building for years and as we approach CES 2020, you can be sure that there will be no shortage of 5G news once again.