Get ready for iPhone 6–sell your handset today

Apple will put growth back into the smartphone market soon when it introduces the iPhone 6. If you're trading in your old device, shift it fast before trade-in values take a dive.

Biggest yet

The new iPhones will likely be available in normal and larger sizes and deliver a whole heap of fantastic improvements. Interest will be insanely great. That iOS 8 will deliver great new features will also drive interest.

This happens every year.

One advantage iPhones have is that older models hold value far longer than competing devices, but whenever Apple introduces new models trade-in values of older editions falls. That's happening again, says smartphone trade-in merchants, Nextworth.

'We expect this to be a huge event for trade-in volume due primarily to the expected change(s) in form factor. When there is a change in form factor (3GS to 4, 4S to 5) NextWorth.com typically sees around a 100 per cent lift in trade-in volume,' Nextworth's Jeff Trachsel said.

Switching

This means millions of iPhone users will try to sell their old phones simultaneously, driving down trade-in values. Whenever Apple launches a new device its huge church of loyal users tend to upgrade. That's partially because they know Apple's products deliver the highest customer satisfaction levels of any smartphone and they want to use the latest exciting Apple technologies.

It's likely lots of Android device owners will dump their smartphones to get the Apple product they've always wanted. Apple is expected to reveal a larger iPhone model this time round, which Traschel expects will prompt a 'higher percentage' of existing Samsung 'phablet' users to switch platforms. 'Consumers who [would] prefer an iPhone but insist on a bigger screen size will finally [be] able to make the switch.'

Prepare

iPhone 4 won't support iOS 8 , so 'trade-in values for iPhone 4 will steadily decline over time,' says Trachsel. This means it makes sense for iPhone 4 owners to exchange their iPhone now in order to buy a heavily discounted iPhone 5S or 5C when prices fall after the iPhone 6 ships. iPhone 4 values will decline rapidly when that happens, so selling early may make sense for some customers, apparently.

All the same, there's no way to avoid the inevitability of all this - as the iPhone 6 release approaches a flood of older models will begin hitting the trade-in sites, which will depreciate the value of old iPhones. 'The best time to sell is as soon as possible,' Traschel said, noting that his firm will honour any values it offers for old handsets for up to 30-days from when the value is agreed.

What to do?

Cynical readers will observe that Nextworth is certainly attempting to gain some profile for its trade-in service at this special time of the iPhone year, but that doesn't mean its observation that prices of old models decline when new models ship is redundant. Lots of iPhone users must consider this as they figure out when to sell their existing handsets to prepare to purchase the new.

As well as trying to get the best price there are several other things you should do before you exchange your old iPhone, not least reading this advice.

It's also essential that you take this step before selling the old iPhone - you must delete your private data and disconnect iPhone from your Apple ID following these steps:.

Backup Go to Settings>General>Reset and tap Erase All Content and Settings. If you're using Find My iPhone you must enter your Apple ID and password before the device is erased and removed from your account so the next owner can activate it.

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