The global market for refurbished smartphones slowed to one percent year-over-year (YoY) growth in 2018, reaching close to 140 million units, Counterpoint Research said on Thursday.
According to Counterpoint's "Refurbished Smartphone Tracker", the secondary industry slowed due to the 11 percent drop in new smartphone sales in key supply countries like China and the US. The drop in new device sales led to a decline in devices flowing into the secondary market.
Samsung and Apple continued to dominate the refurbished market with 70 percent share while Huawei is growing in popularity, especially in South East Asia.
"The US and China markets saw lower upgrade cycles in 2018, which affected the flow of devices into the secondary market. In addition, China and US trade tensions held up devices in customs much longer than normal. This was especially true during the first half of the year," Tom Kang, Research Director at Counterpoint Research, said in a statement.
Higher percentage of refurbished devices were sold with warranty.
This greatly helps overcome consumer hesitancy to purchase refurbished devices, the market research firm added.
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