Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

ANTICIPATED resale value for CDMA?

A

alectheking

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 9, 2010
584
28
I can't make up my last minute decision if I should buy a 16gb full retail or not?
Its a little over 700 with tax, and I have the money but if the resale value by may/jun is any less than like 450-500 that would kinda suck. Granted, by may I will be contract upgradable to the iPhone 5, but my current phones already passed its last stand (3 years old). I just don't want have the chance that the iphone will take a almost -$100 in value for every month just because its purely CDMA. I sold my 7 month used iPhone 4 32gb unlocked by jailbreak for $750 in december but realize I wont be even close to touching that with a 16gb CDMA. Any valuable thoughts? I have a gut feeling that purely since its Apple the resale will hold up fairly well. And, I tried searching the forums already but found nothing solid. thanks
 
Well obviously no one knows, it's not out....

But comparing GSM vs. CDMA versions of other phones...it's a given that the VZ iphone will sell for less than the GSM version, though perhaps not by much if it's versus AT&T-locked phones as opposed to unlocked ones.

I would guess $20-50 less on average than an AT&T locked phone (only because you can jailbreak and unlock if you want, so the possibility would make it slightly more valuable by default).

But compared to a factory unlocked iphone? It could be hundreds of dollars. If you really did sell that iphone for $750 with a jailbreak unlock....with a factory unlocked one could have sold for even more, though obviously those are rare here since AT&T won't factory unlock any iphones no matter what.
 
IMO, I dont think it will fetch as much as att iphone. How many other carrier can u use verizon iphone on here in NA? Sprint? Metro? I dont think they can flash it over to those carrier like other phones, and how would they unlock a verizon iphone? At least for att iphone, if u can unlock it, you can use it many places over sea.
 
Good points, but that reminds me Verizons isn't exclusive, so it shouldn't be carrier locked? Plus I don't think there will be any type of "unlock" for CDMA iPhones, but most definitely the jailbreak. I could be wrong though but I don't foresee the unlock for CDMA unless theres some info I am missing.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

I think it will be able to resale for near what an AT&T locked one does. I believe Apple said they expect to ship ~10 million CDMA iPhone 4s this year, and analysts predict demand for Verizon iPhone to be 15-25 million.

Though there is less overall demand for a CDMA phone, which lowers the pool of potential customers.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

The cell tech currently used by Verizon and Sprint in the US. Most of the world uses GSM, which is what the current iPhone is compatible with.
 
Much lower resale value, because Verizon phones are LOCKED to verizon due to CDMA.
 
Depends if you can unlock it for Sprint?

That would be awesome because there are a lot of sprint fanboys that would love an iphone so it depends if you can unlock the cmda to work on sprint

I used to be with sprint but left for the iphone, and will never look back
 
For the moment none, transferring CDMA phones from one network to another requires a flashing of the baseband with the new carriers baseband. Since only Verizon has the CDMA iPhone you only have the verizon baseband available. And then you have to call the new carrier to add your phones ESN to their network. Good luck finding a CSR that knows how to do this.

Theoretically it's feasible to do this, but I've never found anyone thats been able to pull it off.
 
I think lower.

All my iPhones I sold were to people who wanted to use on other carriers.

That pushed the price up a lot more than if I were just selling to somebody on ATT.
 
I think the resale value may actually be higher....
This is how I see it: People on AT&T who want an iPhone have the option to buy a slightly older model for less money. If they can't afford the premium prices of the iPhone 4, they can't opt to buy a slightly cheaper 3GS, 3, or even original iPhone.

The reason the resale value may be higher for Verizon is customers don't have older models to look for. The only model they will be able to use is the newest iPhone 4. I guess what I'm trying to say is supply and demand. The demand will be very high, at least in the beginning, for Verizon iPhones. The supply will only be of the iPhone 4, which will let inflation occur.

Maybe? I think I'm thinking correctly... :p
 
yardie said:
For the moment none, transferring CDMA phones from one network to another requires a flashing of the baseband with the new carriers baseband. Since only Verizon has the CDMA iPhone you only have the verizon baseband available. And then you have to call the new carrier to add your phones ESN to their network. Good luck finding a CSR that knows how to do this.

Theoretically it's feasible to do this, but I've never found anyone thats been able to pull it off.
Click to expand...

We already know Pegatron is making CDMA iPhones for other carriers outside the US. So we will most likely have another baseband available. The question will be how long will it take someone to get that process figured out.
 
akkkmed said:
I think the resale value may actually be higher....
This is how I see it: People on AT&T who want an iPhone have the option to buy a slightly older model for less money. If they can't afford the premium prices of the iPhone 4, they can't opt to buy a slightly cheaper 3GS, 3, or even original iPhone.

The reason the resale value may be higher for Verizon is customers don't have older models to look for. The only model they will be able to use is the newest iPhone 4. I guess what I'm trying to say is supply and demand. The demand will be very high, at least in the beginning, for Verizon iPhones. The supply will only be of the iPhone 4, which will let inflation occur.

Maybe? I think I'm thinking correctly... :p
Click to expand...

I think you are incorrect. The people from overseas who have bought iPhones from me and the overseas market in general used gsm iPhone 4's are alot more in their country.

Called supply and demand. If most of the world is gsm then there's a larger market and peole from overseas are willing to pay.

However the same might be applied to overseas CDMA users.
 
rmitchell248 said:
what is cdma?
543.jpg
Click to expand...

lol........
 
Geckotek said:
We already know Pegatron is making CDMA iPhones for other carriers outside the US. So we will most likely have another baseband available. The question will be how long will it take someone to get that process figured out.
Click to expand...

I know, with other phones this works via "flashing". Basically, the carrier decides whether or not to accept the phone. I think in the US, Cricket is the main carrier that accepts any other CDMA phones. I'm pretty sure Sprint and Verizon accept NOBODY else's phone.

At the very least, it will be interesting to see how this evolves.
 
mpossoff said:
I think you are incorrect. The people from overseas who have bought iPhones from me and the overseas market in general used gsm iPhone 4's are alot more in their country.

Called supply and demand. If most of the world is gsm then there's a larger market and peole from overseas are willing to pay.

However the same might be applied to overseas CDMA users.
Click to expand...

I don't disagree with that at all.
I mean the initial prices could be higher. Not trying to start a fight. This is just how I see it...
 
Initial rush will push prices up but once everyone is happy they should be lower then GSM. Main reason for the astronomical prices of iphone 4s is the overseas market.

As far as activating it on sprint or other carriers its going to be done. Its not a rocket science to do and most likely will require loading appropriate prls via QPST. The main problem is actually getting Iphone's ESN added to your network. Sprint is very anal about it and probably will not do it. You will have better luck with MetroPCS, Boost etc as they are more lenient about adding ESNs
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back