
The market for used and refurbished mobile phones has skyrocketed in the last couple of years with technology becoming a necessity with each passing day. The expansion of e-commerce and retail chains has made the availability of used and refurbished mobile phone abundance and the ease of accessibility has triggered strong growth in the global refurbishment and used mobile phone market. It has been observed by the analysts at Persistence Market Research that the market will witness a strong growth rate of 9.8 percent from 2019 to 2026. Back in 2017, the market was worth USD $19.06 million and it has been estimated to surpass USD $44.1 million by the end of 2026.
The trend of purchasing used and refurbished has been highly observed in developing regions and mostly in countries such as China and India where the population as well as the market penetration of phones is extensively high. In India, millions of mobile phone users still purchase second-hand phones as they prefer buying refurbished or used phones with the features they need in less price than settling for a new phone as a comparatively higher price with lower specifications.
Together with affordability, less time to be invested in upgrading smartphones, is also fueling the demand for refurbished and used mobile phones at present. High prices of new phones is expected to trigger the demand for used and refurbished phones as with technology becoming ubiquitous, new and advanced features are being added to the phone every day. Growing desire to upgrade to a new model has given the used and refurbished market an impetus and is expected to maintain its pace over the coming years.
In order to meet the growing demand of the consumers from across the globe, the companies offering refurbished and used mobile phones are collaborating with e-Commerce companies and product suppliers for increasing their business revenue and adopt new innovation strategies. These initiatives are expected to enable vendors of used and refurbished mobile phones to reach out to new potential customers in emerging markets and also explore and venture into untapped markets. The growing expenditure on the ICT industry at the global level has increased the adoption of connected devices for Internet usage. The incessant launches of new communication and IT technologies over the last couple of years has increased the adoption of refurbished and used mobile phones as well, especially in developing regions.