iPhone 13 Holding Value Much Better Than Any Other iPhone After Launch

Two months after its launch, the iPhone 13 lineup is seeing unprecedented low levels of depreciation, according to research by SellCell.

SellCell's research, based on data from 45 buyback vendors, shows that the ‌iPhone 13‌ has the best value retention of any iPhone in the first two months after its launch. Overall, the ‌iPhone 13‌ models have only depreciated by 25.5 percent on average. By comparison, the iPhone 11 lineup lost 44.6 percent of its value and the iPhone 12 lineup lost 41 percent of its value in the same period after launch.

Between the first and second months after launch, the ‌iPhone 13‌ models depreciated by just 0.6 percent on average, with depreciation of 24.9 percent by the end of month one and depreciation of 25.5 percent by the end of month two.

Some ‌iPhone 13‌ models even recovered value after an initial drop in value after launch. The iPhone 13 Pro Max with 1TB of storage regained 1.4 percent of its value, the 512GB model regained 1.7 percent of its value, and the 128GB model regained 1.8 percent of its value. The ‌iPhone 13 Pro‌ performed even better, with the 128GB model regaining two percent of its initial value and the 256GB model regaining 4.6 percent of its initial value.

The ‌iPhone 13‌ mini was the biggest depreciator in the lineup, with the 128GB and 256GB models losing five percent and 7.5 percent respectively.

The reduced rate of depreciation may be attributed to setbacks such as component shortages, production cuts, and shipping delays, which reduced the availability of the ‌iPhone 13‌ models and pushed up the price of used devices. Until Apple begins to fully meet the demand for ‌iPhone 13‌ models, SellCell speculates that there could be even more value recovery through the end of 2021.

The iPhone 14 is said to be unlikely to benefit from such unusual factors to suppress its rate of depreciation after launch, making it probable that this depreciation trend will be the slowest for some time.