257Loner
macrumors 6502a
No, smartphones lose 50% of their value after one year. Cars lose 10-20% of their value after one year.
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Apple's Foldable iPhone Could Lose Almost $1,300 in Value in First Year, Study Suggests
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At the company we have 110 employees using the Samsung Z fold7.
It's completely changed my outlook from "I have no interest, cannot imagine why a person would want an expensive foldable.... to hey this is great!
Carrying a 13" MacBook Air for work, now I only take it out half the time.
Fast forward to the present I would absolutely love a folding iPhone... but Apple chooses an odd, short and wide shape. Open it’s smaller than my Z. So much for buying a folding iPhone, it just won't work for me.
Instead of using the form factor that's established by Samsung, Oppo, Huawei, Google and others, which is the ideal size for my work. Taller is better, and in fact I could very well be a customer for the Samsung Tri-Fold at some point in the future.
Happy_John
macrumors 68020
These arcticles bug me. This isn't news, and it isn't a study. It's marketing for SellCell, nothing else.
SellCell, from whom this "study" came, is a company that buys and resells re-owned phones.
SellCell are saying here that the fold with have a very low resale value when people try to sell them.
Ahem, what is really happening here is that SellCell is saying that SellCell will give a very low value on iPhone Ultras / Folds when people try to sell them to SellCell.
It's sound very like SellCell is trying to lower expectations of resale value to benefit themselves.
In any dubious news article where the content is provided by a business with skin in the game, always ask "Cui Bono?".
SellCell, from whom this "study" came, is a company that buys and resells re-owned phones.
SellCell are saying here that the fold with have a very low resale value when people try to sell them.
Ahem, what is really happening here is that SellCell is saying that SellCell will give a very low value on iPhone Ultras / Folds when people try to sell them to SellCell.
It's sound very like SellCell is trying to lower expectations of resale value to benefit themselves.
In any dubious news article where the content is provided by a business with skin in the game, always ask "Cui Bono?".
JonYo
macrumors member
You know personal tech is too expensive overall when we start talking about depreciation the same way we do about vehicle depreciation. I suggest not giving this sort of thing significant attention. Yeah, literally EVERYthing depreciates over time, so don't buy tech with resale value at the front of your mind, it'll just occupy your mind uselessly. Just buy the tech you want, and use it until the wheels fall off.
If maximising resale value is your goal, just skip a step and keep your money.
baconcat_8964
macrumors 6502
Vision Pro lost more than $1000 after the first year. But I did a lot with it in the first year. Great experience.
Consumer electronics are not investment. Don't buy things you could not afford. Simply not worth it.
Find cheaper alternatives.
Consumer electronics are not investment. Don't buy things you could not afford. Simply not worth it.
Find cheaper alternatives.
robertosh
macrumors 65816
I guess it's relevant for people that want to have always latest devices 🤷♂️
Umm what? lol, aren't y'all still waiting on Apple Intelligence that was promised a few years ago lol
Zorn
macrumors 65816
The first version came out 2 years ago, they were missing some of the canned demos that were shown in the event. That stuff is rolling out this year. Meanwhile the phones have all gotten major version updates and software updates. How's any OnePlus or Motorola phone doing sitting on the same software from the day it came out?
LarryJoe33
macrumors 68030
I'm getting one for no other reason than I want my Annual Upgrade iPhone to feel like I actually got something new. I am only stuck with it for a year if it sucks, which also means I could care less about a steeper depreciation curve. Apple will be absorbing anything over $1,000 in depreciation if the price tag is $2,000.
I7guy
macrumors Westmere
If one is concerned about depreciation or loss of value, a phone is not an appreciating asset.
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
What about the third "k" that will probably be required?
pdaholic
macrumors 68020
I fear you are correct. Even more of a reason to hold off!
pdaholic
macrumors 68020
Well it’s more than that; I have to carry an iPhone at work, and my Fold is my personal phone. When my personal phone is an iPhone, texts and FaceTime come to both phones through iCloud. Not so much when one phone is an Android.
I have mine setup that way. I get my messages on both because of signing in with the same apple account. I forward my calls to google voice so it rings on both as well. Not for everyone, but it lets me play in both worlds while not losing the benefits of Apple.
Le_Chiffre
macrumors 6502
That’s true for Android foldables. 😂
A new resale value study suggests that a $2,000 foldable iPhone could lose as much as $1,292 of its value within its first 12 months on the market, based on current foldable depreciation trends.
The estimate comes from SellCell, which analyzed the 12-month resale performance of flagship smartphones from Apple, Samsung, Google, Motorola, and OnePlus. The site found that foldable smartphones lose an average of 64.6% of their value within a year, the worst depreciation rate of any smartphone category, compared with 55.3% for traditional smartphones.
SellCell calculates that foldable phone owners lose $997.69 on average after 12 months, compared with $605.32 for owners of traditional smartphones, a gap of $392.37. Foldables retain just 35.4% of their launch value after a year, versus 44.7% for non-folding phones.
Apple is widely rumored to be preparing its first foldable iPhone, expected to be called the "iPhone Ultra," for launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in fall 2026, with a price of around $2,000.
Using that rumored price point, SellCell modeled what a foldable iPhone's resale value might look like after a year if it depreciated at the average rate seen across today's foldables, landing at around $708 after 12 months. This would represent a loss of roughly $1,292.
SellCell notes Apple has historically outperformed competitors on resale value. The iPhone 16 lineup retained 51.5% of its value after 12 months, the strongest of any major manufacturer in the study, ahead of OnePlus (46.8%), Google (40.8%), Samsung (39.5%), and Motorola (24.5%). If a foldable iPhone matched the iPhone 16 lineup's depreciation rate instead, SellCell estimates it could be worth around $1,030 after a year, over $300 less depreciation than a typical foldable.
Real-world depreciation would likely land closer to Apple's existing figures. The base iPhone 16 retained 51.4% of value after a year and the 256GB iPhone 16 Pro Max retained 56.4%, though even at those rates, the total loss on a $2,000 device would still come out to roughly $1,000 over 12 months.
Article Link: Apple's Foldable iPhone Could Lose Almost $1,300 in Value in First Year, Study Suggests
Well Android in general has piss poor resale value, especially Android flagships 🤡, due to their tiny marketshare.
I agree. I buy what I like, use it, and then sell it for what I can.
pdaholic
macrumors 68020
