Smartphones have strong trade-in value, sometimes as much as hundreds of dollars.
In July, the trade-in value of a 16 GB Apple iPhone 4S on AT&T's network ranged from $150 to $275, depending on whether the party buying the device was a carrier, retailer or manufacturer, according to NPD Group.
That means an average consumer might use the amount a carrier or other party is offering for a smartphone trade-in to shop around to get more dollars from a different carrier. In other words, the consumer might have some modicum of power in an obviously organized and aggressive smartphone resale market.
At least, that's one theory of the how the smartphone trade-in market works—it assumes that the next carrier offers good network connections and prices for voice and data, at least as good as the current one.
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