Counterpoint: Refurbished smartphone market to grow 15% in 2021, outstripping new smartphone market's 4.5% growth

In 2021, the refurbished smartphone market grew 15% from the previous year, outpacing the 4.5% growth in the new smartphone market. Counterpoint Research reports that refurbished phones are becoming increasingly popular among consumers and smartphone manufacturers. The shift to 5G has driven many users to upgrade, and interestingly, high sales of new phones have in turn helped boost sales of refurbished phones.

Many suppliers have turned to trade-in deals to reduce the purchase cost of new models, which in turn has increased the supply of devices that can be refurbished and sold again.

Cost savings is a big factor in people choosing refurbished phones over new ones – phones on the second-hand market can be 60% cheaper than new phones on average. The two markets with the biggest growth were Latin America (+29%) and India (+25%). However, mature markets like the US (+15%), Europe (+10%) and China (+10%) also saw an increase in people buying repaired phones. These markets are also feeling the economic squeeze, but there’s more to it than that.

Sustainability and eco-friendly initiatives are becoming more popular with consumers, and getting refurbished phones instead of new ones is a good way to reduce e-waste. These initiatives are also becoming more popular among manufacturers and operators, although their main focus is still profitability.

“In the EU, government initiatives are helping secondary market sales. Operators are also working to use more secondary market devices with e-waste reduction goals. Finally, EU marketplaces and collection companies – Back Market and EcoATM are examples – are growing their presence,” wrote research director Jeff Fieldhack.

So it's not just OEMs and carriers, third parties are also expanding their newer phone businesses. This is helped by the growing right to repair movement in Europe, the US and Japan as companies open up access to genuine parts and tools to non-affiliated repair shops.

Apple Inc.'s iPhones still lead the second-hand market, but Samsung models are also becoming increasingly popular and closing the gap.

From cnBeta.COM