Pune: The refurbished segment of smartphones has recently seen almost double-digit growth as consumers trade their older models to buy premium handsets. A large part of the demand has been fuelled by aspirational youth in metro cities and tier 2, 3, and 4 markets. "I bought a refurbished iPhone 12 mini for about Rs 23,000.
It was almost 40% to 50% cheaper than the market price of a new device, and I also have a warranty on it," said Kavita Giri, a Std XII student from Kolhapur. Aziz Mohammed, an autorickshaw driver in the city, also flaunts a refurbished high-end Samsung phone that he purchased online for Rs 20,000. "I have been using this device for six months, and there have been no issues so far," he said.
The refurbished category of smartphones is a sub-segment of the used or pre-owned segment of handsets. When there is a technical modification made to a device to improve its overall function, it falls into the refurbished category, industry experts said. Saket Saurav, who runs ReFit, a refurbished phones company, said the segment is growing at 35% to 40% compared to last year.
"We are growing at 40% over the last fiscal year and are expecting our business to grow by more than 50% over the last year during the Oct-Dec period," he said. More than 45% of ReFit's sales are from tier 2, 3, and 4 markets, though the demand for high-end devices has increased significantly from metros and tier 1 cities. Yug Bhatia, CEO at ControlZ, said that he expects FY24-25 to be three to fou.