Sales of new smartphones are slumping because our old smartphones are good enough: Report

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the smartphone industry itself is responsible for slumping smartphone sales. [caption id=“attachment_4357579” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A woman uses her iPhone X. Image: Reuters[/caption] Year-old smartphone models from Apple and Samsung are still good enough to be resold, convincing plenty of US consumers to buy refurbished smartphones instead of newer models. What the trends also indicates is that newer devices that sell with $1000 price tags are failing to impress buyers who recently purchased a device from the same brand. What this also means is that shoppers looking for a new smartphone don’t see the point in investing in the latest smartphones because the improvements in the newer models aren’t a big leap over previous models. With that said, a lot of buyers are turning to refurbished and pre-owned smartphones in the international markets. A report by market research firm Counterpoint also points out that 1 out of 10 devices sold around the globe is a refurbished unit. Used or refurbished smartphones basically perform the nearly the same as their newer counterparts but sell for a lot less, sometimes at half the price of the original in the second hand market. While it may seem like win win for buyers, it does not work well for manufacturers. Sales of new smartphones reportedly dip towards the end of the every year, with most buyers browsing for second-hand devices. A part of the reason for this in markets other than India, is the leasing programs that are available with carriers abroad. The bottomline remains that smartphones do not lose value easily, and this is specially the case with premium segment devices, that fetch a good value both for second hand buyer and owners who are upgrading to newer models.