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2020 Market for Used/Refurbished Smartphones Grows to 351m up 11.8% Y/Y
 
IDC reported that global shipments of used smartphones, inclusive of both officially refurbished and used smartphones, is expected to reach 225.4M (+9.2% Y/Y) units in 2020. By 2024, IDC estimates used smartphone shipments to reach 351.6M units (market value of $65B) with a CAGR of 11.2% from 2019 to 2024.

​Table 1: Used Refurbished Smartphone Sales 2020-2024e

Counterpoint puts the used smartphone market at ~100m in 2020 <1/2 of IDC’s figure.
 
Figure 1:Regional Used/Regional Smartphone Sales (m) – 2019-2020

Figure 2: Used/Refurbished Smartphone Sales by OEM  – 2019-2020

​Growth is driven by mature markets in which trade-in imitates a subsidy form to push consumers to upgrade; there is a rapid growth in trade-in programs and average selling prices (ASPs) across numerous channels in the past years. Apple, Samsung and Huawei have all implemented their own programs with very aggressive trade-in offers compared with other channels. The India market is forecast to experience double-digit growth in smartphone sales in 2021, but replacement demand will still be greater than upgrade demand, according to analysts. The Indian handset market was affected by COVID-19, supply chain disruptions, and deteriorating relations with China in 2020, with shipments showing little growth in 2020 - way lower than the 8-14% growth between 2017 and 2019. Canalys estimates that smartphone shipments into India will grow from 150 million in 2020 to 172m in 2021 up 14.7%; Other researchers, CMR, TechArch and Counterpoint Research estimates 148 million and 179 million units were in line with these figures. The growth of cell phone shipments in India in 2021 will be driven by the gradual economic recovery and the fact that India still has a large number of 2G feature phone users who continue to upgrade to smartphones.