Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, April 20 (Xinhua)-- Global sales of refurbished mobile phones will fall 8% year-on-year in 2023, and then return to growth in 2024, according to TechInsights research data. In most parts of the world, consumers have been using their existing phones longer than ever before, and in some key markets, the replacement frequency has been extended to four years or more. As sales of new smartphones decline, consumers are handing over fewer and fewer old phones, creating supply problems for the refurbished phone industry.

TechInsights predicts that although shipments of refurbished phones in the Asia-Pacific region will fall 7.6% year-on-year in 2023, its total shipments will still be the strongest compared with other regions. By 2023, North America will have the second largest number of refurbished mobile phone shipments, with an annual growth rate of 10.4%. Economic pressures, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and fewer refurbishment machines handed over by consumers have made Central and Eastern Europe the two weakest markets, with an annual decline of-22 per cent. Refurbished mobile phone sales in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Western Europe will also show negative growth in 2023.

The increase in sales of refurbished smartphones (CTOnews.com note: almost all refurbished phones sold in the past few years are smartphones) is related to a number of intertwined factors. The supply of refurbished smartphones is intertwined with sales of new smartphones. Used smartphones do not enter the refurbishment supply chain until they are replaced by another smartphone, whether new or refurbished. While most used smartphones can be refurbished, the economy of doing so (related to the smartphone demand, maintenance costs, and service life of a particular model) means that only a small number of used smartphones will actually be refurbished, rather than being recycled, thrown away, or retained by consumers as backup devices.

In recent years, the amount of time consumers have kept their smartphones has increased steadily. TechInsights predicts that by 2023, the global average replacement time will be more than four years, and in some markets, this number will be extended to 5.6 years. This means that the proportion of smartphones replaced each year is lower than ever before, and the proportion of second-hand phones entering the refurbished supply chain is lower than the proportion of new phones sold. Even if they change their phones, the used smartphones are older than ever before, so the phones will be in worse condition.

The end result is that while demand for refurbished smartphones is growing steadily in all regions, the supply of equipment available for refurbishment and consumer demand is increasingly tight. These supply constraints will eventually be eased after 2024 as sales of new smartphones resume growth, but at the same time, sales of refurbished smartphones in 2023 will show uneven growth across regions and around the world.

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