Chinese Brands Gain Share In Refurbished Phone Market

Chinese smartphone brands are on their way to consuming a lion’s share even in the refurbished and used-phones market as price-sensitive consumers are finding it a win-win to own a phone with high specifications at a reasonable price.

Mandeep Manocha, CEO and co-founder, Cashify says that the share of Xiaomi has gone up from 12%-15% to 25% in a span of 12-15 months on their platform.

“On the other hand, Motorola and Lenovo are seeing a drop in the share. Motorola is seeing a dip from 10% to a 5% and Lenovo’s share has also dropped,” he added.

As the life cycle of a smartphone comes down to 13-15 months from 18 months within a span of a year and half, and the price of refurbished models among Chinese brands such as Vivo, Oppo, Realme, Xiaomi and One Plus at Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 — as estimated by the re-commerce players — these brands seem to grow at 50%-60% in that space.

With prices along the lines of entry-level smartphones, but with better specifications and almost new — since these models are used for barely over a year — smartphone users from tier 2 or tier 3 cities are purchasing the Chinese brand models.

These players are also eating into the share of former famous brands such as Lenovo, Motorola, Karbonn and Lava, companies in the space add. “Those who migrate from a feature phone find these brands perfect, since the models aren’t too heavy on the pocket and also offer the transition to first time and entry-level users at better specifications and also come with a warranty,” said Rohit Bagaria, founder, Budli.in, an online portal which offers re-commerce of gadgets.

Chinese brands have seen an increase from 40%-75% in the last 2 years, while Motorola and Lenovo saw their share being halved in the same period. Even as these phones are picked up by those upgrading from a feature phone to a smartphone, the premium category — Apple and high-end models of Samsung — have their share untouched at 25%, thanks to their existing smartphone customers who upgrade to a model with higher specifications.

“There is a 30% growth in purchase of One Plus and Xiaomi phones but Apple and Samsung still maintain their user base. It is only the homegrown brands like Lava, Karbonn etc which are becoming less popular,” said Yogesh Bhatia the founder of PreLoved Device.―Times of India