Charts of the Day: Apple Comes Out Top in Secondhand Smartphone Market

Consumers in the world’s largest smartphone market looking for a deal on a secondhand handset prefer Apple’s offerings, even as the company has seen lackluster shipments for its newest models.

A report released last Friday by Xianyu, a secondhand goods site backed by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, says Apple’s iPhone X was the most sought-after secondhand smartphone on the site in 2018. The iPhone X went on sale in China in November 2017.

Chinese smartphone-maker Xiaomi’s Mi 8, which went on sale in China in last June, came in second. It was followed by the Mi 6, which went on sale in April 2017.

The fourth and fifth most sought-after models were the iPhone 7 — which became available in China in September 2016 — and the iPhone 6, which went on sale in 2014.

Xianyu’s report also details which phones had the highest resale price as a percentage of their launch price. Holding the top two spots were Apple’s iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, which were sold for an average of 97% and 93% of their launch prices respectively. They were followed by the Huawei Mate 20 and the Huawei Mate 20 X, both of which retained 88% of their value on average. All of the top ten went on sale in China last year.

The report says China’s secondhand smartphone market is experiencing a “golden age” as the country’s declining smartphone shipments have created significant room for growth in used phones sales. According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, China’s total smartphone shipments fell 16% year-on-ear to 390 million units last year.

Contact reporter Tang Ziyi (ziyitang@caixin.com)