The market for refurbished smartphones, known as Refurbished smartphones, continues to grow globally, as sales of this category of phones increased by 5 percent during 2022, at a time when sales of new smartphones decreased by more than 12 percent.
What are refurbished phones?
And when we say refurbished phones or refurbished smartphones, we mean by that used phones that customers returned to the company that manufactured them, with the aim of replacing them with the latest version or because they suffer from a manufacturing defect, so that after that the company renews them and fixes the malfunctions that they suffer from, and replaces their damaged components with new ones and then You put it up for sale at a cheaper price than new phones.
The category of refurbished phones also includes phones that were offered by the manufacturers’ agents, and tested by customers before purchasing, as after a period of time, companies renew them and sell them again at a cheaper price than new phones.
Generally, the price of refurbished smartphones is between 20 and 30 percent cheaper compared to the prices of new phones.
iPhone vs Samsung race
And iPhone phones were able to sweep the sales of refurbished phones during 2022, achieving a growth rate of 16 percent, compared to sales in 2021, taking a share of 49 percent of this market, so Samsung ranked second with its acquisition of a share of 26 percent, compared to a share of 28 percent in 2021, according to a report by Counterpoint Research, a market research company.
“Oppo” and “Vivo” phones ranked third in terms of sales of refurbished phones during 2022, with a 3 percent share for each of the two brands, while “Huawei” came fourth with a share of 2 percent, and the remaining 17 percent was shared by the rest of the companies. phone manufacturers in the world.
India ranked first in terms of the most selling countries for refurbished smartphones, followed by Latin American countries, while sales of this category of phones in China declined by 17 percent.
During the past year, 120 million refurbished phones were sold.
Information technology engineer Muhammad Shami said, in an interview with “Sky News Arabia Economy”, that the figures mentioned in the Counter Point Research report relate exclusively to the sales of smartphones that have been recovered and refurbished by their manufacturers, which are referred to when sold as “Refurbished”. , which is completely different from used phones that are not subject to a renewal process in the company, pointing out that more than 120 million refurbished smartphones were sold during the year 2022.
According to Shami, the reason why iPhones account for about 50 percent of the sales of refurbished phones in 2022 is due to the controls imposed by Apple on the process of renewing these phones, which ensure that the user gets a semi-new phone, guaranteed for a year and cheaper, starting from 15%. percent, indicating that any phone that Apple renews, gets a new battery and a new external structure, and comes equipped with all accessories, cables and the latest operating systems, as all these elements play a role in making many users feel that they are facing an excellent deal.
Shami adds that the quality of the refurbished phones that are currently sold in the market varies between good and very good, while it can be said that the refurbished iPhone phones are similar to new phones in terms of quality, and this is what encourages users to purchase them, pointing out that Apple is currently offering and through On its website, the refurbished iPhone 12 Pro Max with a storage capacity of 512 GB is priced at $ 1,000, while the price of this phone is $ 1,300 if new, which means that the user is able to save about $ 300.
Why the demand for refurbished phones?
According to Shami, the difficult economic situation in the world during the year 2022 contributed to the demand of customers to buy refurbished phones, especially in emerging economies such as India, Brazil, Mexico and China, in addition to the way users think in these countries accepts the idea of obtaining a refurbished phone, which is something It may not be acceptable to the rest of the people, especially the rich, as they prefer that their phones be completely new, stressing that this market will continue to grow during 2023 and subsequent years.
Shami concludes his speech to “Sky News Arabia Economy” by pointing out that the various manufacturers of smart phones are working hard to increase levels of confidence towards refurbished phones, especially in light of the growing trend of environmental protection, so refurbishing the phone instead of making it reduces the percentage of carbon emissions, including up to 70 percent, and it also reduces the use of raw materials.
