Refurbished phones offer great value since they can be bought for cheap while having only little to no wear and tear. Flagships like Apple and Samsung are mostly considered when going for refurbished phones and that doesn’t seem to change anytime soon. A new report from Counterpoint Research reveals that Apple was the market leader for refurbished phones last year. Additionally, the global refurbished smartphone market in 2021 reportedly saw more growth than the new smartphone market in 2021.

It’s a 15% YoY increase over 2020

The global refurbished smartphone volumes witnessed a year-on-year(YoY) growth of 15% in 2021. This is way higher than the new smartphone shipment volumes of 4.5% YoY last year. As per Counterpoint’s report, this is because new smartphones are launching at higher prices making buyers opt for refurbished models.

The refurbished market is also growing, thanks to the trade-ins that people go for while buying a new device. The trade-ins have also grown more than 10% in 2021 globally.

Latin America and India saw the most growth

If we compare the refurbished smartphone market of 2021 to 2020, we see that the market has grown tremendously in regions like Latin America and India. The Latin American market grew by 29%, while the Indian market grew by 25% in 2021.

Next comes the US with a 15% increase, followed by Southeast Asia’s 12% increase, China & Europe’s 10% growth, and lastly Africa showed an increase of 4%.

While the refurbished phone market surged, the average selling prices of refurbished devices have also gone up. This is because 4G devices in some of the regions still retain value due to the non-existence of 5G services. If we take India, for example, the region doesn’t have commercial 5G as of yet, which could be a reason for people buying refurbished devices, despite those devices being 4G-only models.

The refurbished market will continue to grow as some of the areas in these regions are yet to explore the refurbished smartphone market.

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