Amid the saturation in few of the largest smartphone markets, the growth of the global smartphone industry has been slowing down for the last few quarters. All eyes are set on India considering low smartphone penetration and huge untapped market. Factoring the price-sensitive nature of buyers in India, the demand for refurbished smartphones is bound to rise. But what is even more surprising is that the refurbished smartphones market in India is growing at a much faster pace than the new smartphone market.
According to the latest report released by Counterpoint Research, the refurbished smartphone shipments in India grew 41% YoY in Q2 2018, which is more than double the growth rate new smartphone shipments clocked in the quarter. This made India the fastest growing refurbished smartphones market, ahead of the China and USA.
However, owing to the population and technology advancements, China has the maximum number of smartphone users, be it new or refurbished smartphones.
Here are few of the main highlights of the report:
- India is the only country in the world where both the markets, refurbished as well as new smartphone, are growing at a significant rate quarter over quarter.
- Latin America emerged as the second fastest growing refurbished smartphones market in Q2 2018. The new smartphone market in the country grew at a negligible rate in the same quarter.
- The US smartphone market has already saturated. With 100% penetration, the growth in the new smartphone market has declined in Q2 2018. However, the trend has helped the refurbished smartphones market in the US to witness unprecedented growth. In Q2 2018, the refurbished smartphones market in the US grew by nearly 20% YoY.
- Samsung and Apple, together, captured over one-third of the global refurbished smartphones market.
Refurbished Smartphones Market: Driven By iPhone
The other interesting finding from the report is the device preferences of refurnished smartphone buyers globally. In price sensitive countries like Vietnam, Indonesia and India the mid-to-high price range smartphones are high in demand. However, it’s Apple iPhone almost every prospective buyer of refurnished smartphone hunt for.
The stability, performance and durability of iPhone have earned the confidence of refurnished smartphone buyers globally. Unlike Android, most iPhone owners enjoy the timely upgrade, software enhancements and support for a much longer time, and that’s what makes iPhone a much adorable device for most of the refurbished smartphone buyers.
The other reasons behind the high demand for iPhone in the refurbished smartphones market are its high resale value and quite an identical look. The yearly depreciation in the price of iPhone is comparatively lower, which offers the highest ROI to buyers who resell their refurbished iPhone.
The refurbished smartphones market is yet to face any challenge from Chinese smartphone manufacturers who are busy in capturing the new smartphone market, largely in APAC. It would be interesting to see how the dynamics of the global refurnished smartphones market will change after Chinese smartphones manufacturers set their eye on it.
As the global smartphone is slowly heading to an absolute saturation, a sizeable number of smartphone users, who have limited income, will be turning to refurnished smartphones market to upgrade themselves to premium devices without making a big dent in their pocket.
