The coming of the Samsung Galaxy S4 has sparked a rush to trade in current smart phones -- with phone fans particularly keen to ditch their HTC and BlackBerry phones.
SellMyMobile.com, which checks various trade-in and recycling sites, reports that the number of people selling on their existing phone went up by a third in the days after the S4 announcement.
The amount of money you can get for your current phone is at its highest when there's no successor on the horizon, but once a new phone is announced the value starts to fall -- hence, savvy phone fans looking to sell their phones now even though the S4 doesn't hit shops until 26 April.
Judging by these numbers, it seems current HTC owners are most tempted by the S4, as trade-ins of HTC phones shot up by 82 per cent. Meanwhile BlackBerry trade-ins went up by 56 per cent.
Trade-ins of current Samsung phones went up by 21 per cent, but trade-ins of iPhones barely changed. By comparison, iPhone trade-ins went up 61 per cent after the iPhone 5 was announced. The iPhone is also listed as the phone that holds its value best over time, which is also true even for older generations of Apple phones.
Other phone recycling sites include Mazuma Mobile, Envirophone and CeX. Your network will probably take your current phone off your hands too.
The S4 seems to have had the biggest impact of this year's wave of new high-end phones such as the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, and BlackBerry Z10, despite disappointing phone fans with its incremental changes over the current Samsung Galaxy S3.
Has the S4 prompted you to want your ditch your current phone? Which of this year's new phones have you most excited? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
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Comments 15
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NickMUK 19 March, 2013 17:07
Does this really make sense? Samsung announces S4 at 10pm, HTC One goes on sale 11hours later. And at around the same time there's an increase in people trading in their HTCs? Couldn't possibly be that people are upgrading their phones to the One?
Seems to me that people are jumping to conclusions.
anonymous 19 March, 2013 17:52
Couldn't agree more with the first post. How about tech reporting not Samsungs marketing.
davefromwales 19 March, 2013 18:12
yup I think nick has hit the nail on the head.
HTC trade ins for the HTC One
BB trade ins for the BB Z10
Trade ins for the S3/S2 not up yet but will happen when new phone is available.
obviously there will be people selling one make to get another, but the data provided doesn't prove the theory written by cnet. if anything it disproves it as why would you sell your current phone now and wait a month and a half without a device?
cnet really do need to think things through a tad more
CaptainPicard 19 March, 2013 18:16
I agree NickMUK, bad journalism. Furthermore, who in 2013 can go 6 weeks without a smartphone?? :O This article should be about HTC, BlackBerry and Samsung phone owners trading their phones in for the HTC One.
This is the worst piece of journalism I've seen this year - last years winner was CNETs review of the HTC One X - which as an owner is a brilliant phone (battery could be better though).
Meleagru 19 March, 2013 18:47
Probably fans of HTC and BB were still in doubt over upgrading to the same brand but after seeing the new S4 decided it's not worth crossing over to Samsung and just turned in their old blowers. I remember something similar happened with the launch of the iPhone 5.
Meleagru 19 March, 2013 18:54
I'm double posting but I just remembered the full story. After the iPhone 5 was launched, sales for the S3 actually shot up significantly. This seems to be the same situation.
nottsmartin 19 March, 2013 21:13
I have to agree with the top four or five comments! This headline is nonsensical and verging on the absurd! Very negative and jumping to conclusions - the wrong ones!
olivierm 19 March, 2013 22:42
Always the mildly entertaining cnet uk baseless journalism. Who needs facts when you can use wild speculations? Irritating but effective at driving traffic.
Damien2501 19 March, 2013 22:56
I agree with the above comments, this story is about HTC, not Samsung. Its the same as last year, CNET UK kept dissing HTC & praising Samsung & Apple for more or less the same points.
And then there was this:
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobile-phones/htc-one-x-review-50007077/
markiwyn 19 March, 2013 23:18
I too think its silly to think that htc owners are not responding to the new htc one.
However, I will disclose that I am a htc owner, I have enquired on envirofone in preparation of getting the S4.
vkvedam 20 March, 2013 08:43
I totally agree with Nick's comment. We've got 3 phones in our household (One X, Xperia S and Nexus 4). And we know each one's strengths and weaknesses. This is one of the worst pieces of journalism I've seen in recent times with an absolute biased opinion and conclusion from the market research data. Another good example of how the data could be interpreted in a completely wrong sense. Thank god you people are not some financial analysts.
anonymous 20 March, 2013 09:04
what a crap article, Cnet does it again!
anonymous 20 March, 2013 14:01
I am one of trader of one x looking to buy htc one. I made this decision after watching the launch of s4. I was disappointed with S4 n made up my mind to buy htc one... I totally agree with Nick.. CNET.. You need to look into these comments to discourage this kind of journalism..... Good statistics, but bad conclusions
anonymous 21 March, 2013 10:48
Sorry I don't agree with what people have been saying here you could add your name to the pre order list for an HTC one on the second day of the announcement. So my question is why this can't be true. The HTC one is a beautiful phone but that's where it stops for until HTC put bigger batteries in there phones count me out apart from that I don't see anything special on the one I don't listen to music without headphones so don't really care about speakers.
anonymous 24 April, 2013 12:30
Agree with most of the above posters - people waited for the S4 then decided what phone they wanted; HTC One, Xperia Z, Nexus 4, Note 2, etc. The S4 is massively expensive, and I've seen many S3 owners commenting that they won't bother to upgrade...
HTC have a great new phone, but are hurting themselves with delivery problems; I waited, saw the S4, decided against it, waited for a while to see a HTC One, got bored of waiting went to the shop to try an Xperia Z, loved it and bought one. I might have bought a HTC One is it was available at the same price...