mce’s newest feature, available for both Android and iOS and to Vodafone UK customers, aims to reduce revenue losses and boost value to the $52 billion mobile-device secondary market
mce Systems, the mobile device lifecycle management omnichannel solutions provider, unveils its cosmetic assessment technology for smartphones, which enables users to objectively self-grade their device’s value for trade-ins. The feature is now available to Vodafone UK customers through a white label app created by mce, and will be available globally at a later time.
mce’s self-grading technology, uniquely capable of accurately assessing a device’s screen condition, harnesses cutting-edge neural network and computer vision-based algorithms to objectively determine the cosmetic condition of a mobile-device. To maintain objectivity in the self-assessment process, the underlying neural network was trained using deep learning with thousands of real customer devices across mce’s customer and partner network.
With only the device’s camera and a mirror, users receive an AI-based assessment that is over 99-percent accurate to determine the real value of their device. The self-grading process for the customer is as follows:
1. Device verification: Verify the device’s authenticity via an authentication code and International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number to ensure the user’s device is not blacklisted.
2. Gamified pixel tests: Select the marked spots on the screen to provide an objective assessment of how many of the device’s pixels are dead, and to determine screen reaction time to the user’s touch.
3. Screen cosmetic grading: Using a mirror, open the device’s screen-side camera and place it before the mirror to show the entire screen. The technology captures the screen and identifies its perimeter, while blanking the screen’s content to protect user privacy.
Each year mobile device manufacturers design new devices, drawing the eyeballs of consumers around the world. Through their mobile operators, smartphone users often trade in their old devices at the operator’s retail locations and receive an upgraded device and a new plan. In the U.S. alone, mobile device users were returned a total value of $2 billion for their trade-ins in 2020, according to a Hyla Mobile report. By extension, the worldwide consumers’ secondary market for used smartphones is growing, and expected to reach a global value of $65 billion by 2024. Yet the trade-in process that supplies the secondary market for mobile devices lacks a standardized means of
mce Systems, which partnered with a number of renowned companies, including BrightStar, Assurant, Vodafone, Pelephone, HTC, Samsung, and Blackberry, primarily offered its Retail Trade-in solution to mobile operators to objectively and accurately assess device value at brick-and-mortar locations. Now, its new self-grading solution will enable customers to assess their devices remotely, without the need to visit a mobile operator’s outlet.
“The modern mobile user expects access to service instantaneously, convenience across all customer service channels and touch-points, and a consistent customer experience, which our solution offers,” says CTO Almog Ben Harosh, CTO of mce Systems. “Today’s trade-in market lacks a standardized system of assessing device value, but with mce, the process and market becomes a lot more streamlined for both the customer and the mobile operator.”
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