Since its birth, the mobile phone recycling industry has grown at a rapid pace, with each new mobile phone available on the market causing an increase in the number of consumers recycling their old mobile phones. In general, the increase in awareness of mobile phone recycling has caused the industry to grow organically but the driving factor has, and always will be, the creation of new mobile phones.

The UK summer time often seems to bring around new mobile phones with all major brands bringing out their updated technology. In the past month the Samsung Galaxy Note, the HTC One and the Sony Xperia have all been released by their respective companies. This has caused a mass increase in the number of consumers looking to recycle their old mobile phones in order to switch to the updated mobile phone technology. On certain days mobile phone recycling sales have been as much as double the expected rate predicted by industry companies. This is due to the high demand for the new mobile phone models which have all flew of the shelves, competing with each other and each having their own unique features which appeal to different users.

Also the rumour mill has started recently for the new iPhone 5, anticipated in the summer of 2012, with some bloggers suggesting the phone could be on shelves as early as June! This will also help contribute to the increase in demand for mobile phone recyclers as consumers anticipate the imminent release.

Most likely this increase in demand will last throughout the summer as the iPhone 5 will begin to have a true impact when the phone is released later in the summer. However, the actual effect the new iPhone will have will be easier to understand once Apple reveals some of the new features which are to be incorporated. For example the new iPad brought little tangible change that was recognisable to the average consumer from the iPad 2, causing poor sales figures and therefore having a detrimental effect on the recycling figures. The new iPhone 5 however, will bring lots of change due to the fierce competition in the mobile phone industry from companies such as Samsung and HTC. Many of the recently released mobile phones are boasting superior processors, camera and screen quality compared to the iPhone 4s which will force Apple to improve the iPhone 5 dramatically in order to regain its market leadership.

This summer is bound to bring many twists and turns in the mobile phone recycling industry and only time will tell how these will impact on the phone recycling industry. The iPhone 5 will possibly be the key to what effect we see so for now we will have to wait for a release date and feature list from Apple before continuing to make predictions.