back to article Happy days for second-hand smartphone sales

Falling sales, burning batteries – but not everything associated with smartphones is bad The market for used phones is exploding by comparison, according to analyst IDC. IDC predicts that sales of used smartphones will hit 222.6 million units by 2020, a compound annual growth of 22.3 per cent. The used-phone market will be …

  1. Little Mouse

    I can see the appeal of selling on your old phone (Money. "Green", etc)

    Even so, my trusty phone will be taking the masonry chisel express to Silicon Heaven when the time comes, the same as my old HD's and thumb drives.

  2. David Gosnell

    Mmmm, attractive...

    .... until you realise that phone's been worked to death so the flash memory is worn out and the hard-wired battery holds no charge any more.

    1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

      Re: Mmmm, attractive...

      Flash - yes, this could be a problem although the churn on flash cells in a mobile device is currently somewhat less than that of an excessively write happy desktop OS such as Windows.

      Battery, not so much of a problem as most batteries can be relatively easily replaced by a technician - the difference is that they are not consumer or in-the-field replaceable.

      1. David Gosnell

        Re: Mmmm, attractive...

        Flash - yes, this could be a problem although the churn on flash cells in a mobile device is currently somewhat less than that of an excessively write happy desktop OS such as Windows.

        Agreed, though I blame it for the death of my Xperia M, which had a pathetically small amount of storage, so even a little write-happiness was bad for that churn. Lollipop was also probably the cause of death for our Nexus 7 tablet, with similar symptoms. Plenty more storage than the Xperia, but pretty widely known to write excessively as it ground to a halt.

    2. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

      Re: Mmmm, attractive...

      Indeed. I don't think I'd consider a 2nd hand phone that didn't have a replaceable battery. In my experience, the service life of a phone tends to be a couple of years, and that's about the length of time it takes for a battery to start to degrade.

      1. Dave 15

        Re: Mmmm, attractive...

        I think ALL the old Nokias and Sonys (and Sony not Sony Ericsson :) ) ancient Sansungs etc. have replaceable batteries. The hardest to change is the N8 where you have to use a screwdriver to remove the bottom cover... but no soldering irons are needed.

        The battery life is the issue though, my current retro phone (an N71 - yes a Symbian device) has a battery life of only 4 days now, far down from the week it used to have when the battery was good.

        The reason I like the old phones was the choice, they were NOT all cheap and nasty iphone clones, some had keyboards, some even had querty keyboards, some were flip, some clamshell (prefer the flip but both keep the screen intact in my pockets full of keys etc, and neither make unexpected phone calls when I am sitting down).

      2. Jeffrey Nonken

        Re: Mmmm, attractive...

        Just picked up two Nexus 5X phones and a Nexus 7 (2013) tablet via eBay. Can't complain about the battery life on any of them.

        That said, it's possible I might have had to or wanted to replace any or all of the batteries; I did take a chance. And doubtless I'll need to replace them sooner than had I bought new devices. But so far they've held up pretty well.

        It was worth it to me to get the devices I wanted for, like, a third of the cost of new ones.

  3. Kevin Johnston

    new opportunities to grow revenue and increase market share

    Perhaps I am reading this wrong but should that not say something along the lines of...

    Your new phones are so bad/expensive/meaningless that people are preferring over-worked second hand cheapness in ever increasing numbers? Can't be arsed to check the figures but this looks like second hand is growing faster than new.

  4. David Roberts

    Market saturation again

    For a while used phones get passed around to less privileged family members (that is, ones who can't afford the monthly contract on a new phone).

    After a number of two yearly updates everyone has a working phone. Therefore sell off the surplus.

    Although we have never sold on a phone and have a phone museum in various drawers. Comes in useful now and then for an emergency non-smart phone. So I am probably talking bollocks.

    1. You aint sin me, roit
      Trollface

      Re: Market saturation again

      That phone museum will come in handy when your drug-dealing* nephew** needs a couple of disposable handsets to go with anonymous pay-as-you-go SIMs.

      * Drug dealer/trrrrst/freedom fighter/conspiracy theorist/bent copper: delete as appropriate.

      ** Other generic family members are available.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. 8Ace

        Re: Market saturation again

        From the down vote, looks like your ex is a Reg reader !

    3. Snow Hill Island

      Re: Market saturation again

      We have definitely reached market saturation. We're now in the situation where the consumer has to pay a large premium for a small increment in performance. as far as I can tell, the biggest bang per buck improvement is between the £20 to £30 android phones to the £50 to £100 phones, with the user experience only improving in small increments for each £50 spent above that. Even a landfill android phone that costs £20 on PAYG is OK for some use cases.

      Given the above, what I don't understand is why the second hand phone market is so bouyant, apart from for iphones, where no "budget" model is (or is ever likely to be) available.

    4. fruitoftheloon
      Thumb Up

      @David Roberts: Re: Market saturation again

      David,

      bollocks - no, sense - yes...

      Cheers,

      jay

  5. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    Yeah, duh...

    Apple for example.

    iPhone 7 - no headphone socket. Useless.

    iPhone 6 - Touch Disease. Can't trust it. (An affordable fix plan might salvage the range.)

    iPhone 5 or SE seems to be as far as one can go.

    1. Andrew Newstead

      Re: Yeah, duh...

      The 5 and SE are also a reasonable fit for my hand - or am I holding it wrong...

  6. Down not across

    Upgrade cycle

    Analyst Gartner reported some time ago one reason for the slow down in the once-booming smartphone market was the fact that customers are holding onto their phones for longer – up to 2.5 years – and are less inclined to jump on the latest models.

    Given that, in UK at least, 12 month contracts are thing of the past and people are mostly stuck on 24 month contracts (maybe 18 if you want to pay through the nose for that) combined with phone release schedules why would anyone think the cycle would be any less than 2 years.

    Of course some people do buy their phones outright, but I suspect that is a minority.

    Then there is the fact that the devices have reached a state where there are less compelling reasons for upgrade.

    1. ElectricFox
      Linux

      Re: Upgrade cycle

      I paid £170 for a second hand s5 (which, with removable battery and SD card makes it superior to the s6 and s7 imho). I'm not tied to a 2 year contract and saved a fortune on not opting for a new phone. It makes sense to me, but each to their own.

    2. Christopher Rogers

      Re: Upgrade cycle

      I'm in that minority. The Galaxy S6 has everything I need in a phone and combined with an unlimited data sim only contract and google drive, storage is not an issue. The battery is reasonably good, the screen is great. It has an IR blaster which I use often (and is missing from the S7) and the camera holds its own. I am clean out of compelling reasons to replace this phone with anything else on the market.

      It has replaced an S4 which is still a very capable handset except it seems to have an issue with its sim card slot. But, thats no problem. It has instead become a very capable media remote for the home and lives in the lounge, replacing multiple remotes and working with chromecasts etc etc. It has its own google account which is part of my Google family set up and if i'm really really pushed to use it as a phone, Skype fills the void.

      Basically I have stopped looking at the phone in the way the industry wants me to and just see it as another computer like my laptop or PC.

      1. James 51

        Re: Upgrade cycle

        I have an S6. It is a good phone (miss the Blackberry keyboard, wish I had held out for the sales) but the battery life in dire. I need to charge it twice a day at least.

  7. Ogi

    "Analyst Gartner reported some time ago one reason for the slow down in the once-booming smartphone market was the fact that customers are holding onto their phones for longer – up to 2.5 years – and are less inclined to jump on the latest models."

    You don't say? Why would I trade a phone that does everything I need, and has a replaceable battery and external SD card slot ( I'm currently happy with 64GB extra in the slot, 96GB in total) with one that has neither of those features (and if it is an Apple, no headphone socket either).

    The only advantage is that the new phones are faster (mine is fast enough), have a newer OS with more spying and features I don't need, and are more locked down hardware wise.

    They are probably thinner and possibly look more stylish in modern fashion sense, but for me a phone is a tool, not a fashion statement. Especially when I look at prices for new phones.

    Until a new phone offers everything my old one does, and more new stuff to justify the cost, I will keep buying the older gen phones second hand. Being able to replace the battery means the phone can just keep going and going until something more serious breaks (even the LCD screen can be replaced on my phone, and has been twice so far).

    Presumably this is why manufacturers don't want to offer the above. In this consumer disposable society, people like me must be the devil incarnate. How dare I not just chuck the phone every two years and buy a new shiny for £600 (and don't kid yourselves, you always pay for the phone, even the "free phone" 24 month contracts have the phone price baked in).

    1. DropBear

      Actually, in a modern fashion sense every single smartphone* released in the last ten years looks very much identical.

      *except the new Samsung flip-smartphone. Man, I miss hardware keyboards sooooo much...

      1. Zippy's Sausage Factory

        @Dropbear - Blackberry Privs looked good to me. Alas I'd already tied myself into the iPhone walled garden when it came out...

        1. James 51

          And they are on sale, £290 at the moment.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The used market is an opportunity to profit?

    How does that work? The manufacture isn't going to get any money from the resale of the device, so that leaves either charging for accessories or software. They either make or license the accessories bit & probably already offer all the accessories for any given device they can think of, so what new ones might they offer? If they try to offer software then what kind would they bring forth? Feature updates to skins? New themes & desktop wallpapers? Animated screen icons/avatars? Security patches? BAH. They already refuse to support their own device after an obscenely short time once it leaves their hands, I don't see them suddenly scrambling to start updating it years down the line.

    How *exactly* is the used market supposed to be a profitable opportunity for the manufacturers? Adapters, cases, dongles, screen protection, stylus, in line headphone amplifiers that either take standard batteries or contain rechargeable ones, wired & wireless headsets, BlueTooth devices of all kinds, if it CAN be offered they're probably ALREADY offering it. Software support is the only thing left I can envision & I can't imagine those chintzy bastards doing anything of the sort.

    Note: Sorry for the wonky formatting but the site refuses to accept any of my attempts at HTML codes. It displays the <BR> tags rather than processing them.

    1. Dave Pickles

      Re: The used market is an opportunity to profit?

      Well if the punter knows that in 2 years time he'll be able to resell his phone for 25% of the original price, maybe he'll be prepared to pay a little more for it in the first place?

      1. Steve Todd

        Re: The used market is an opportunity to profit?

        There are also opportunities selling official parts, certifying referb and repair companies etc.

  9. dch0ar

    Accuracy

    I am always sceptical about the accuracy of the numbers the marketeers predict - to the nearest 0.1%. Does anyone ever check afterwards or do the figures disappear into the bit bucket?

    1. 080

      Re: Accuracy

      When you make up a number for whatever reason you should make it very precise, that way no one will query it. 37.43% of all statisticians agree with that statement.

  10. Aslan

    S4 to S7 upgrade well worth it

    I upgraded from a Samsung Galaxy S4 to a Samsung Galaxy S7. It was well worth it. In this hilly city the S7 picks up a decent signal 20 vertical feet lower than the S4. It gets better coverage in buildings, when turned sideways the S4 would tend to drop calls, the S7 has no issues with any orientation. The Wifi signal goes further and it's faster, the phone runs cooler, the GPS is faster and more accurate. The difference are huge and the upgrade was well worth it. Both are great, but the S7 is better by far.

    Note, I would not have chosen the S7 over other current options because of it's lack of removable battery and glass back, but when they were two for the price of one, $338 instead of $676, I can buy a battery case to fix that.

    1. DropBear

      Re: S4 to S7 upgrade well worth it

      Glad it worked out for you. As for me, I still can't find anything any of the S3-S7 can do that I would want and my S2 can't do.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: S4 to S7 upgrade well worth it

        so why are you looking for a replacement? My S2 does all I want it to do, although I must say that, being a leftie, I constantly find the buttons mirrored on both sides rather irritating. Actually, even the phone S2 replaced (San Francisco) still does all the things I want it to do, i.e. make and receive phone calls, and play music sometimes.

        But who knows, I might be adventerous enough to replace my S2 by the end of this decade, if it dies. Probably with another S2.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The market for used phones is exploding

    my heart bleeds for the loss suffered by manufacturers as a result of this terrible development.

    1. Tom 38
      Joke

      Re: The market for used phones is exploding

      If the market for used phones is exploding, does that mean that Samsung is cornering the market?

  12. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    Pity CM is no longer a viable option.

    Would've been great if you could get any "pre-loved" (bollocks speak for 2nd hand) phone and drop CM onto it to make it lean and mean again...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      What's CM?

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        CyanogenMod, I presume

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          CyanogenMod

          Of course....I should have known that.

    2. 080

      Mod is still going the commercial arm is not

    3. Jeffrey Nonken

      CM downloads still available for any phone that they were already supporting as of December. (AFAIK. I can really only speak for the Galaxy S4 Sprint, but I would start with the assumption that they haven't thrown any phones away that have already been developed for.)

      https://download.cyanogenmod.org/

      Yes, it won't have the latest security patches, but stock ROMs are worse...

      And LineageOS has been forked from that. Not quite up to speed, but CM isn't quite dead yet.

      Meantime AOSP at least is available for many models, and there may be other custom ROMs. CM isn't the only one. This link is for Samsung phones but may give you an idea where to start: https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/i9505-orig-develop/jdcteam-android-source-project-mra58v-t3251663

      ...Or just do a web search for your phone model and appropriate keywords.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Been doing it a while.

    With a 10 quid a month SIM only deal, I chop and change second hand phones getting to try out previous gen flagships - sony Zs, samsungs, Moto, (HTC next I think). Change phones as my needs change and resale value holds reasonably well so doesn't cost a lot of wedge. They tend to need a good system reset at least once a year anyway, so I trade across to something different.

    Chucking a 700 quid shiny new handset down on a pub table in a puddle of beer, or strapping it to my arm on a cross country run in the rain doesn't seem like the right choice. Second hand one, I care a bit less about it and get to use it rather than coddle it.

    I used to do the same with cars until I moved into That London and sold up.

  14. dajames

    A second-hand phone might be OK ...

    ... but the OS it came with is not.

    It didn't matter when the phone was a Nokia 6310i, because there isn't much to exploit on those (once you have them flashed with the bluesnarfing patch) but a second-hand Android phone will be stuck on an Android version that's at least a couple of releases behind the current one, and that's enough of a security concern for anyone who who understands to prefer a new phone.

    The same is true with iPhones, though to a lesser extent as Apple do release OS upgrades for older phones whose hardware can take it.

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