Posted on 01/10/2023 12:00:02 PM PST by FarCenter
More and more cash-strapped people are opting to buy second hand and refurbished handsets in these tougher economic times with sales of used and refurbished devices estimated to have passed 282 million in 2022.
The unit growth for those 12 months is some 11.5 percent higher than the prior year, and IDC number-crunchers have calculated compound annual growth of 10.3 percent until 2026 when shipments are forecast to reach 413.3 million.
Anthony Scarsella, research manager with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Phone Tracker, said the used market grew off the back of a 6.1 percent rebound in sales of new phones in 2021.
"Used devices demonstrate more resilience to market inhibitors than new smartphone sales as consumer appetite remains elevated in many regions," he said.
"Attractive price points are critical for growth as cost savings remain the primary benefit," Scarsella added. "However, a high-end inventory struggle due to elongated refresh cycles in the new market has used prices growing 11 percent in 2022."
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The backdrop to this is rising inflation and a looming global recession which has meant that many consumers and businesses are less cash-rich than they were at any point in recent years.
The new smartphone market has shrunk for five consecutive quarters up to and including calendar Q3 in 2022. The economics of buying a new phone simply don't stack up for many people.
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.com ...
I’m still rocking an iPhone 8, and I guess I will continue to do so until my wife wants a new phone and I get her iPhone X hand-me-down. (I replaced an iPhone 5C with her hand-me-down iPhone 8 when she got the iPhone X...)
Switched to a MacBook Pro from a Windows 11...The MacBook Pro is a 2015 I7 Quad core and got it for $185..Used OCLP patcher and have Ventura installed-—all I had to do was upgrade the SSD for $60. Also, got a iPad Pro 12.9” used for $200 as I use it for Worship and teaching. Bought used iPhones as well except my iPhone 12 which was bought new.
$2000 for a new computer or tablet is crazy.
I question whether this is intentional on the part of AT&T to get us to upgrade to new smartphones. When your primary use is for text messaging and phone calls (occasional map and Internet lookup - low monthly data usage), all of the bells and whistles of the latest and greatest smartphones aren't needed.
It may be. I have a 4 year old burglar alarm that takes a SIM card from T-Mobile. T-Mobile definitely shut down that device; the new SIM card they sent to replace the old one was not compatible with the burglar alarm. Customer support basically told me “tough luck” my “old device” no longer was good enough to meet their new “security standards”. Which of course was a bunch of BS.
T-mobile has been making a major effort to get people to upgrade their phones. It is largely planned obsolescence and even when they basically "give" you a crappy replacement phone you typically can't change carriers for at least a couple of years without paying a huge penalty.
It sounds like a great deal. I am sure you are aware that the i7-4770HQ @ 2.20GHz used in 2015 MacBook Pros has an average Geekbench multicore rating of 3016. While the current MacBook Pro with an Apple M2 Max processor has a Geekbench multicore rating of 14888. If the lower level of performance works for what you do with your computer there is no problem with that. But it is an apples to oranges comparison.
I have bought our last three iPhones off of eBay. They were new and usually about two to three years out of favor. I pay about $200 a piece for them. Works like a charm.
This is true, but anyone creating a document in Word/Excel or Google Docs/Sheets or watching a video on YouTube or Netflix etc would not likely notice any difference in performance for the extra $1,500+.
The new MacBooks are red hot and very nice for sure - but Internet bandwidth, useful FaceTime/Zoom video bandwidth and human keyboard or speech entry or listening speeds have not increased much so the extra raw CPU performance is not useful even if it is fun.
As I type this, I’m currently working on a 2013 MacBook Air i5 1.3GHz, 8GB RAM with a third party 512GB M.2 NVME SSD running MacOS Monterey (on OpenCore) with numerous Brave and Safari browser tabs open; along with Apple Mail, Notes iMessage and Calendar open. Battery life is 6-8 hours and I get full WiFi bandwidth downloads and uploads from my 1GB FIOS Internet connection. There is no discernible lag time on 1:1 FaceTime or Zoom calls. For under $200 this is a great value that will suffice for nearly all casual home computer users and give the same exact MacOS experience from Monterey.
Those doing things like video rendering, CAD, blockchain calculations etc are a different class of user - but a much smaller available market.
I sincerely hope more people start buying Linux phones in these hard economic times.
An economy like this is a great opportunity to hit big tech below the belt without trying some big government scheme.
I believe Apple has been pretty good about reliability growth over the years. I’ve also learned how to change the batteries (which is a bit like brain surgery but really just takes patience).
As long as the government keeps buying their employees new smart phones at that high rate, no need for rates to come down.
Not a “free market” here.
I have been buying used phones first at Ebay then switched to Amazon. I bought a used Samsung S10+ for about $280 about a year and a half ago. Not a scratch on it. Works great. When it was new in Jan 2020 it was nearly $900!!
The internet went down for a bit here today during a rainstorm. I have a USB C Laptop Docking Station that I can plug in my cell phone to and the mouse and keyboard and big monitor and use the cell service to be online.
USB C Laptop Docking Station
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MC76BBP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Used cell phones have 3 major life problems. The battery is a big one, but can usually be replaced fairly cheaply for awhile. 2nd is security updates. I’d never use one without updates and they almost all limit it to 5 years, especially Android.
The third and biggest is the data standard. 3G is long dead, and 4G will die when 6G comes out in a few years.
Refurb phones should be reliable - not much can go wrong other than the battery losing its ability to hold a charge. Assume “refurb” means replace the battery, screen and charging port and verify everything else still works.
I agree with you in general, but it always amazes me when I use one of my older computers or someone else’s... how different the user experience is even if all I am doing is mundane tasks. I am not using a particularly hot computer, but it is much more capable than my older computers and it becomes very evident even on boot up. It is not so much that it is more “fun” but the experience tends to be much smoother and more pleasant.
Yup-—89% with 603 cycles.
I had a Quad core I5 8250U (2018) in my Windows laptop. This Quad core I7 setup is actually 52% faster overall. The geek bench scores I don’t care about...mostly affects gaming and graphic design. I don’t play games...Also, I spent $1900 less for something that is used mostly for internet, Lotus Notes for work and banking/tax stuff.
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