Why China is snapping up our old iPhones

1285thumb.jpgThe iPhone 3Gs is a surprising entry on a list of 2010’s most traded-in phones. The iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3Gs both come in the top five most traded-in phones on reselling site SellMyMobile.

You might expect the pricey highly-specced iPhones to be kept longer by their owners, but I guess Apple owners like to upgrade. Around June they probably got whipped into a frenzy by Steve Jobs, sold their older models and bought the new iPhone 4.

And lots of these second hand smartphones from the UK end up in countries like India or China…

“Many of these phones are sold onto developing countries such as China, India and Africa, where consumers often use smartphones as their primary method of internet access” said Keir McConomy, MD of SellMyMobile.

Sounds like a worthy second life for your phone… China is where it started off anyway – Apple products are all manufactured there.

Top of the list of most resold phones is the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music – a popular touchscreen feature phone on a £15 a month contract. Keir McConomy, MD of SellMyMobile reckoned that people started to trade this phone in when they

Interestingly , a few iPhone 4s have made their way onto the resale market and it’s also interesting to note that a lot of phones bought on resale sites go to developing countries like India and China where demand for second-hand smartphones is strong.

Keir McConomy: “We’ve started to see a real increase of coveted Apple products in the top ten in the last few months, with even the newly released iPhone 4G making an appearance ; so it will be interesting to see how quickly these phones stay with their initial buyer.”

1 Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
2 Nokia N95 8GB
3 Apple iPhone 3G 16GB
4 Apple iPhone 3G 8GB
5 Nokia N97
6 Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB
7 Blackberry Curve 8900
8 Nokia N95
9 Nokia E71
10 Samsung F480 Tocco

But you’re going to get most ££s if you’ve got an iPad to sell.. these are going for just under the retail price.

1 iPad 64GB £320.00
2 iPad 32GB £310.00
3 iPhone 3GS 32GB £249.00
4 iPhone 3GS 16GB £240.00
5 iPad 16GB £240.00
6 HTC Desire £201.00
7 iPhone 3GS 8GB £189.00
8 Blackberry Bold 9700 £175.00
9 HTC HD2 £174.00
10 Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte £170.00

Anna Leach