Used kit broker Gazelle.com (Gazelle) has seen a sharp spike in Samsung device sells in the immediate aftermath of Apple’s sweeping courtroom victory over the convicted copycat. Gazelle told Marketwatch that there was a 50 percent increase in Samsung device sales by customers in the three days following the jury’s verdict, and that this has resulted in an average 10 percent price decrease for those devices.
Gazelle got its start buying used electronics, but it got a big boost when it began marketing the service towards iPhone owners looking to upgrade to the latest model. The company has had enormous success buying these devices and reselling them at a profit, and has expanded to buy iPads, Macs, and smartphones from HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and other manufacturers.
For instance, Gazelle will pay $229 for a Samsung Galaxy S3, a current device that has gotten consistently good reviews and has been well received in the marketplace. In comparison, Gazelle will pay $287 for a 16GB iPhone 4S on AT&T’s network ($241 on Sprint or Verizon).
“Consumers seem to be jumping ship,” Anthony Scarsella, chief gadget officer at Gazelle, said. “We expect this trend to continue, especially with this latest verdict.”
One reason for the ship-jumping is that some users may be concerned that their devices will see some features removed from their Samsung devices as Samsung releases software updates to keep from infringing on Apple’s patents. Consumers have become accustomed to certain functionality in their devices and don’t want to see it change.
Yung Trang, president of deal aggregator TechBargains, told Marketwatch that, “Android customers are no longer sure of that” as a product of Friday’s jury verdict.
We should note, though, that Samsung has made no announcements about removing features or making any other changes, and the company is busily appealing its conviction as a willful copycat. If the increase in device sales to Gazelle is anything other than a coincidence, it not due to specific news about changing features, but rather on fears that things change.
If that’s the case, the sentiment could perhaps be best expressed as some people are deciding to get out while the getting is good, especially with the release of Apple’s iPhone 5 media event taking place in just two weeks.