A new report says that used iPhone sales are up 28% on the same period last year as owners liberate funds for an iPhone 16 purchase, with the peak seen on the day after the keynote.

The data suggests that the iPhone 16 is set to be a more popular upgrade than either the iPhone 14 or iPhone 15 – with one surprising twist …

Used iPhone sales up 28%

SellCell lets iPhone owners lock in a price for their existing phone when planning an upgrade, and the company says that 28.8% more people are doing so this year.

The year-on-year increase was 26.6% on the day of the keynote, and rose to 31.7% the next day.

SellCell’s data looked at the trade-in sales by volume and value from the Apple Reveal day on 9th September and the following day 10th September. This data has been compared against the reveal date of the iPhone 15 (September 12th 2023) and the following day (September 13th 2023). The data looks at the total number of sales by volume and value across 40 phone buyers to see if there has been an uplift in sales between these two periods year on year.

The findings clearly highlight on the launch date and following day that iPhone trade in volume and values were both up. Trade in volume showing a 28.8% increase on the iPhone 15 launch and value of trade-ins 38% up vs last years launch.

With a big surprise

The even greater increase in values may reflect the most surprising fact: the model being sold in greater quantities than any other was … the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Early data suggest that iPhone users with an iPhone 15 Pro Max are trading their devices in ahead of other iPhone owners. 27.2% of the total iPhone trade-ins over the early launch period are from iPhone 15 Pro Max owners. This is followed by iPhone 14 Pro Max owners that are likely to have come to the end of their two year contract at 15% share of the trade-ins by models.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is of course one of only two existing models capable of running Apple Intelligence, and is also the only existing model with the 5x telephoto lens, so we’d expect owners to be less likely to upgrade than anyone else. (Admittedly I’ll be one of them, mostly for the new Camera Control functionality.)

The explanation may be that those buying the most expensive model in the line-up are also those most able to afford an upgrade after just one year. Or perhaps, as one commenter suggested in response to my post, it’s those of us with more money than sense …

Pre-orders open tomorrow, but you can prep ahead of time.

Photo by Amanz on Unsplash