“The fastest growing segment in global smartphones isn’t Google’s vision for super-cheap, simple Android phones,” Daniel Eran Dilger writes for AppleInsider. “Instead, according to new market data, it’s refurbished high-quality phones that carry a desirable brand but can be sold at a more affordable price, a segment where Apple is ‘leading by a significant margin.'”
“A report by Counterpoint Research noted that ‘the global market for refurbished smartphones grew 13 percent year over year in 2017, reaching close to 140 million units,’ and contrasted this against the larger market for new smartphones, which grew by barely 3 percent during the year, or just 33.8 million units,” Dilger writes. “Among Android licensees, the retracting volume of unit sales was financially disastrous because most manufacturers were already making very little to nothing selling low-end and middle-tier phones. As sales become harder to sustain, competition among poorly-differentiated, commodity Androids gets increasingly cutthroat.”
MacDailyNews Take: When racing to the bottom, every participant is a loser.
“While cheap commodity phone makers fight over scraps, the strength of Apple’s premium devices is allowing them to return to the market to compete again in a second wave, following a trend that occurred among luxury carmakers selling their certified pre-owned vehicles directly in competition with new, entry-level economy cars,” Dilger writes. “Counterpoint Research Director Tom Kang stated… ‘The mid low-end market for new smartphones is being cannibalized by refurbished high-end phones, mostly Apple iPhones…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
Apple certified refurbished is the route we always recommend for someone looking to get an Apple product at a discount. The products offered are basically as good as new. An Apple certified refurbished iPhone beats any new non-iPhone every day of the week! — MacDailyNews, November 9, 2016