Refurbished smartphones in the U.S. - Statistics & Facts

Sustainable tech

Striving for electronic waste reduction, tech companies are adopting a more sustainable approach, for example manufacturing devices with recycled materials. Furthermore, in the first half of 2022, Apple and Samsung have made available their self-repair services, providing original smartphone parts and tools to enable customers to repair their own devices. These factors have been contributing to the growth of the refurbished consumer electronics market, a market that is flourishing all over the world, including in the United States. Particularly, the size of the American reconditioned consumer electronics market is forecast to peak at over 18.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, while the size of the electronic and computer repair service market is expected to reach 19.5 billion U.S. dollars in the same year.

The United States: A growing market, but not a leader

The U.S. is among the most technologically advanced countries in the world, and its advanced smartphone and 5G technologies are said to play a big role in the expansion of the refurbished smartphone market. However, in recent years, Latin America and India have been leading the global refurbished smartphone market in terms of growth, with over 351 million reconditioned smartphones expected to be shipped by 2024. In the same year, North America will account for 27 percent of the market.

New smartphones vs Refurbished smartphones

Despite the advantages of buying refurbished smartphones, such as lower prices, Americans prefer to buy new phones instead of reconditioned ones. The main reason behind this is the worry about the quality and reliability of their smartphones, with U.S. consumers appearing to not be too concerned with environmental issues. On the contrary, people who do buy refurbished devices usually prefer Apple iPhones rather than Android smartphones, with both being available in electronics stores like Walmart and Best Buy. Indeed, in the United States, iPhones are the most popular reconditioned smartphones, especially the iPhone XR and the iPhone 11.

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