The devaluation of iPhone and Android phone

Note: This article is just my random thinking and might not be reflecting the truth.

Apple has a very good marketing move – one model per year. This makes the latest generation phone devaluation-resistance for virtually twelve months.  On the other hand, other brands (take Android phone as an example), the phone market has a steady incoming of new competitors with slightly advanced functions and configurations, which forces the older version to response in price reduction.

Take the Samsung Galaxy i7500 as a case, albeit a bit extreme. The MSRP of this Android 1.5 powered  handset was HK$3,980 in late October 2009, but by early January 2010, the price of the poor Samsung machine was chopped by nearly one-third to HK$2,688. (Note: There is no VAT or GST or other consumer tax here, thus the price might be lower than Europe/America) The second hand price has dropped below $2,000.

iPhone, on the other hand, hold the price line tightly and was not willing to offer any attractive discount, thus in the secondary market, a second hand phone in an excellent condition often fetch more than 90% of the buying price. This was true even back to 2008 iPhone 3G era.