Refurbished Electronics Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Alex Rivera, Consumer Technology | Last updated: September 12, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
The global pre-owned smartphone market reached $83 billion in revenue in 2025, holding a 19% share of total smartphone sales value for the third consecutive year, according to Counterpoint Research. That share is now being tested by the sharpest new-device price shock the industry has recorded: retail prices for existing smartphone models rose 15% globally in the first nine months of 2026.
Quick Answer
Refurbished electronics moved from a discount niche to a mainstream substitution channel in 2026 because new hardware got expensive. Counterpoint Research measured a 15% average retail price increase across existing smartphone models worldwide by September 2026, with new launches arriving 25% costlier than their predecessors. IDC forecasts new smartphone shipments will fall 13.9% to 1.09 billion units — the steepest annual contraction in the category’s history — while average selling prices hit a record $550. Axis Intelligence Research finds that the resulting substitution pressure is not evenly distributed: our Refurbished Substitution Pressure Index reads 80.0 in the Middle East and Africa against 22.1 in North America.
Key Findings
- Counterpoint Research’s Global Smartphone Price Increase Tracker recorded a 15% average retail price rise across existing smartphone models globally by September 3, 2026.
- IDC forecasts worldwide new smartphone shipments will decline 13.9% in 2026 to 1.09 billion units, with average selling prices reaching a record $550.
- Counterpoint Research valued the global pre-owned smartphone market at $83 billion in 2025, equal to 19% of total smartphone sales value.
- Axis Intelligence Research calculates that the 2026 contraction removes roughly 176 million new units from the market versus 2025, derived from IDC’s 1.09 billion forecast and its stated 13.9% decline.
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics data for August 2026 shows the consumer price index for computers, peripherals and smart home assistants up 8.4% year over year while the smartphone index fell 12.2% — a 20.6-point spread inside the same commodity group.
How Big Is the Refurbished Electronics Market in 2026?
Start with what is actually measured, because the honest answer to “how big is refurbished electronics” is narrower than most published figures suggest.
Smartphones are the one device category with a genuine, tracked secondary market. Counterpoint Research’s global pre-owned smartphone data puts global pre-owned smartphone revenue at $83 billion for 2025 and forecasts refurbished volumes to grow around 11% year over year in 2026. Latin America is running ahead of that at 12%, with an 11% volume share of the regional market and a value above $4 billion. Apple holds 58% of the global refurbished smartphone market, a share driven by buyers reaching for last-generation premium hardware rather than current-generation mid-range.
For laptops, tablets, televisions and consoles, no comparable primary tracker publishes a public figure. Axis Intelligence Research reviewed the widely quoted refurbished-computer market estimates circulating in 2026 and found published values ranging from roughly $6 billion to $24 billion for the same year and the same product scope — a four-fold divergence with no shared methodology. We are not going to average those into a single number and attach our name to it. Where a defensible figure does not exist, the useful thing a research house can publish is the fact that it does not exist.
| Segment | Measured value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global pre-owned smartphones (revenue) | $83 billion | 2025 | Counterpoint Research |
| Pre-owned share of total smartphone sales value | 19% | 2025 | Counterpoint Research |
| Latin America refurbished smartphones (value) | Above $4 billion | 2025 | Counterpoint Research |
| Latin America refurbished volume share | 11% | 2025 | Counterpoint Research |
| Global refurbished smartphone volume growth | ~11% forecast | 2026 | Counterpoint Research |
| Refurbished PCs, tablets, TVs, consoles | No primary tracker figure published | 2026 | Axis Intelligence Research review |
Alex Rivera: Every year someone emails me a press release with a refurbished market size to two decimal places, and every year the underlying model turns out to be a survey of resellers plus a growth assumption. The smartphone number is real because the trade-in and buyback pipeline is instrumented end to end. The laptop number is a guess wearing a suit. Treat them differently.
Why Did New Electronics Get So Expensive in 2026?
Memory. That is the whole answer, and it is worth being precise about the size of it.
Counterpoint Research’s Global Smartphone Price Increase Tracker reports that memory prices have risen fourfold since the fourth quarter of 2025, resetting the bill of materials across the entire handset industry. The pass-through has been fast and broad: over 40% of active smartphone models saw a price increase during 2026, which Counterpoint describes as a first for the category. New launches are arriving 25% more expensive than the equivalent variant a year earlier.
IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker quantifies the volume consequence. Worldwide shipments fell 2.9% to 293.8 million units in the first quarter of 2026, breaking a ten-quarter growth run, and the full-year forecast is a 13.9% decline to 1.09 billion units. IDC expects a further 1.1% decline in 2027 before a 5.5% rebound in 2028 as memory supply normalises. Average selling prices are forecast at a record $550, up $100 in a single year.
The damage is concentrated at the bottom. IDC’s Nabila Popal put it plainly in the June 2026 tracker release: the era of ultra-cheap smartphones is over. The sub-$100 tier, which shipped over 170 million devices in 2025, becomes economically unviable once memory and NAND settle at a permanently higher floor.
Where new-device prices rose most
| Market | Retail price increase, existing models, 2026 YTD | Source |
|---|---|---|
| India | 21% | Counterpoint Research |
| Asia Pacific | 19% | Counterpoint Research |
| Middle East & Africa | 18% | Counterpoint Research |
| Latin America | 16% | Counterpoint Research |
| Global average | 15% | Counterpoint Research |
| China | 10% | Counterpoint Research |
| Europe | 7% | Counterpoint Research |
| United States | 5% | Counterpoint Research |
Where new-device volumes fell most
| Region | Forecast change in new shipments, 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Middle East & Africa | −23% | IDC |
| Central & Eastern Europe | −19% | IDC |
| Asia Pacific excl. Japan & China | −14% | IDC |
| Global | −13.9% | IDC |
| China | −13% | IDC |
| North America | −6.3% | IDC |
North America holds up because 60% of first-quarter 2026 shipments there were above $800 and carrier financing spreads the sticker shock across monthly instalments. That is not resilience in the household budget. It is deferral.
The Axis Refurbished Substitution Pressure Index (RSPI)
RSPI — Refurbished Substitution Pressure Index. A 0–100 measure of how hard 2026 market conditions are pushing buyers out of the new-device market and into refurbished and pre-owned channels in a given region. Higher means more pressure.
Two forces decide whether a shopper switches: how much more the new device costs, and whether the new device is still on the shelf at all. RSPI combines exactly those two, from two independent primary trackers.
Formula
RSPI = 0.6 × P_norm + 0.4 × S_norm
P_norm = min(100, (P / 25) × 100) P = retail price increase on existing models, % (Counterpoint Research)
S_norm = min(100, (S / 25) × 100) S = forecast contraction in new shipments, % positive (IDC)
Anchors are fixed at 0–25% on both inputs rather than min–max scaled to the current sample, so future readings stay comparable to this one. Price carries the heavier weight because a price rise reaches every buyer, while a shipment cut reaches only the buyers whose specific tier disappears.
RSPI readings, September 2026
| Region | P (price rise) | P_norm | S (shipment contraction) | S_norm | RSPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middle East & Africa | 18% | 72.0 | 23% | 92.0 | 80.0 |
| Asia Pacific excl. Japan & China | 19% | 76.0 | 14% | 56.0 | 68.0 |
| Global benchmark | 15% | 60.0 | 13.9% | 55.6 | 58.2 |
| China | 10% | 40.0 | 13% | 52.0 | 44.8 |
| North America | 5% | 20.0 | 6.3% | 25.2 | 22.1 |
These are baseline readings. Axis Intelligence Research finds a 57.9-point spread between the highest-pressure market and the lowest, which means the phrase “global refurbished growth” describes almost nothing useful. MEA at 80.0 is a market where the entry tier is being withdrawn and prices are climbing at the same time; the secondary channel is not a value option there, it is the remaining option. North America at 22.1 is a market where refurbished competes on preference, not necessity.
Europe and Latin America are absent from the table on purpose. Counterpoint’s price geographies and IDC’s shipment geographies do not align for those two — Counterpoint reports “Europe” while IDC’s regional cut is Central and Eastern Europe, and IDC does not publish a discrete Latin America shipment forecast in the June release. Computing a reading from mismatched footprints would produce a number that looks precise and means nothing.
Alex Rivera: The useful thing about RSPI is what it predicts about supply, not demand. High-pressure markets get a demand surge for refurbished stock at exactly the moment their trade-in pipeline dries up, because nobody upgrades when the upgrade costs 20% more. Low-pressure markets like North America keep upgrading on financing and keep feeding good-condition inventory into the channel. The devices flow one way and the demand flows the other.
Are Refurbished Prices Rising Too?
Yes, and the mechanism is worth understanding before you decide the discount has evaporated.
Refurbished pricing is anchored to new pricing, not set independently. Counterpoint measures the gap between a new smartphone and its restored counterpart at $50 to $200, or roughly 30% to 50% off the new price. When the new price rises 20%, a stable percentage discount means the refurbished price rises too — the shopper’s saving in dollars grows while the device they can afford stays the same age.
Counterpoint recorded an average selling price increase for refurbished devices in Latin America during the second half of 2025, tied to a weak upgrade response after the Galaxy S25 and iPhone 17 launches. Fewer trade-ins means less supply, and in a supply-constrained secondary market, prices firm.
India is the clearest live case. Counterpoint Research’s H1 2026 pre-owned report, as reported by Business Standard, found refurbished smartphone volumes up 13% year over year in the first half while new smartphone volumes fell about 11%. Counterpoint expects Indian refurbished volumes to grow 16% for the full year. Two curves crossing in opposite directions inside one market is the substitution effect made visible.
What Do Official US Price Statistics Say About Electronics in 2026?
This is where the data gets genuinely strange, and it is the part most coverage of the 2026 price shock has missed.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI data for August 2026 shows the following twelve-month changes inside the information technology commodities group:
| CPI series (US, 12-month unadjusted, Aug 2025 → Aug 2026) | Change |
|---|---|
| Computers, peripherals and smart home assistants | +8.4% |
| Computer software and accessories | +25.4% |
| Televisions | −1.0% |
| Information technology commodities (group) | −4.3% |
| Telephone hardware, calculators and other consumer information items | −14.1% |
| Smartphones | −12.2% |
| All items (headline CPI) | +3.4% |
Axis Intelligence Research finds a 20.6-point spread between the computer index and the smartphone index — two series published in the same table, on the same construction basis, moving hard in opposite directions during a component shortage that hits both. Computers rose 3.8% in the single month from July to August 2026.
The explanation is hedonic quality adjustment. BLS adjusts the smartphone index for specification changes, so a device that costs more but also ships with more capability registers as a smaller price rise, or a fall. The computer index has less headroom for that offset in a year when manufacturers are cutting configurations rather than expanding them.
Set the official index beside model-level retail observation and the gap is measurable. Counterpoint’s tracker puts US retail smartphone prices up 5% in 2026; the BLS quality-adjusted smartphone index is down 12.2%. Axis Intelligence Research reports the 17.2-point difference as a measurement gap, not as a price change — the two series are built differently and cannot be netted into a single inflation figure. What the gap does tell you is that a US household relying on official statistics to judge whether phones got expensive this year will reach the wrong conclusion, and that the refurbished decision looks rational to buyers in ways the CPI will not register.
How Do Repair Laws Affect Refurbished Device Supply?
Refurbishment is repair at industrial scale. Parts access, documentation and software authorisation determine whether a returned device becomes a graded unit or scrap, so the regulatory picture is a supply variable, not a footnote.
In the European Union, ecodesign and energy labelling rules for smartphones and tablets have applied since June 20, 2025. Manufacturers must supply key spare parts within five to ten working days and for at least seven years after a model stops being sold in the EU; provide operating system updates for at least five years from the last unit sold; ship batteries rated for 800 charge cycles at 80% capacity retention; and give professional repairers fair access to repair software and firmware. Devices also carry a repairability score from A to E. The Commission projects €20 billion in consumer savings in 2030 and 2.2 TWh of avoided electricity consumption.
For a refurbisher, the seven-year parts window is the operative clause. It converts device longevity from a manufacturer’s discretionary choice into a scheduled, plannable input.
In the United States, PIRG’s right-to-repair coverage tracking reports that 25.75% of Americans lived in a state with an enforceable right-to-repair law as of January 1, 2026, rising to at least 35.5% by autumn 2026 once the Connecticut and Texas statutes take effect. Coverage is a patchwork, and PIRG’s own research notes that some manufacturers limit repair access to the states whose laws require it.
Alex Rivera: Repairability scores get discussed as a consumer-facing badge. The people who actually act on them are procurement managers at refurbishing operations deciding which models to buy in volume, because a Grade A device costs less to bring to Grade A when the display is a four-screw job. The label is a consumer product; the effect is industrial.
Does Buying Refurbished Reduce E-Waste?
At the level of a single device, extending a working phone’s life by two years avoids the manufacture of a replacement. At the level of the system, the numbers are less flattering.
The UN’s fourth Global E-waste Monitor, published by UNITAR and ITU, recorded 62 million tonnes of e-waste generated in 2022, averaging 7.8 kg per person, with 22.3% documented as formally collected and recycled. The report projects 82 million tonnes by 2030. These are 2022 figures — the fifth edition of the Monitor has not been published as of September 2026, and no more recent global measurement of comparable scope exists.
The relevant point for 2026 is directional. A market that ships 176 million fewer new units and routes more demand through refurbishment slows the intake side of that curve. It does not fix the collection rate, which is the part that has not moved.
Methodology
Collection. Every figure in this page was retrieved from a source document opened on September 12, 2026. Primary sources are IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker (public Smartphone Market Share release, updated June 23, 2026), Counterpoint Research’s Global Smartphone Price Increase Tracker (September 3, 2026) and its LATAM refurbished market insight citing the Global Pre-Owned Smartphone Market Report H2 2025, US Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Table 2 for August 2026, the European Commission’s DG GROW notice on ecodesign and energy labelling for smartphones and tablets, PIRG’s right-to-repair coverage tracking, and the UNITAR/ITU Global E-waste Monitor 2024.
Axis-calculated figures.
- Units removed from the new market in 2026. IDC publishes a 1.09 billion unit forecast and a 13.9% decline. Implied 2025 base = 1.09 ÷ (1 − 0.139) = 1.266 billion. Units lost = 1.266 − 1.09 = 176 million. Reported as an Axis estimate derived from IDC’s published pair.
- CPI spread. 8.4 − (−12.2) = 20.6 percentage points. Both series come from the same BLS table and the same construction basis, so the subtraction is valid.
- US measurement gap. 5 − (−12.2) = 17.2 percentage points. Reported as a gap between two differently constructed series, never as an inflation rate.
- RSPI. Formula, inputs, weights and anchors are disclosed in full in the index section above. A reader with the two source pages can recompute every reading.
Secondary retrieval. The India figures (refurbished volumes +13%, new volumes −11% in H1 2026, +16% full-year forecast) reach us through Business Standard’s reporting of a Counterpoint Research report we could not open directly. They are carried as supporting regional evidence and flagged is_primary = no in the dataset. No headline finding on this page rests on them.
Not published. We did not compute a total refurbished electronics market size across all device categories, because the available estimates for refurbished computers alone diverge by roughly four times for the same year. We did not reconcile Counterpoint’s $83 billion pre-owned revenue figure against IDC’s smartphone market value figures, because the two use different revenue definitions.
About This Dataset
refurbished-electronics-statistics.csv contains every figure cited on this page, one observation per row, with source organisation, source document, source URL, retrieval date, a primary-source flag and, for Axis-calculated rows, the formula. Values are raw: no currency symbols, no percent signs, no thousands separators. Dates are ISO 8601.
License: CC BY 4.0. Free to use, republish and redistribute with attribution.
Citation line: Axis Intelligence Research, Refurbished Electronics Statistics 2026, 2026.
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APA — Axis Intelligence Research. (2026). Refurbished electronics statistics 2026: Market size, prices and consumer adoption. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/refurbished-electronics-statistics/
MLA — Axis Intelligence Research. “Refurbished Electronics Statistics 2026: Market Size, Prices and Consumer Adoption.” Axis Intelligence, 12 Sept. 2026, axis-intelligence.com/refurbished-electronics-statistics/.
Chicago — Axis Intelligence Research. “Refurbished Electronics Statistics 2026: Market Size, Prices and Consumer Adoption.” Axis Intelligence, September 12, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/refurbished-electronics-statistics/.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is “refurbished” the same thing as “pre-owned” in market research data?
No, and mixing them is the most common error in refurbished market coverage. Pre-owned is the full secondary market including private device-to-device sales and unrepaired resale. Refurbished is the subset that passes through a commercial process — testing, data wiping, part replacement, grading, warranty. Counterpoint’s $83 billion 2025 figure covers pre-owned smartphones; its ~11% 2026 growth forecast covers refurbished volumes. They are different denominators and should never be quoted interchangeably.
Will the memory shortage make refurbished stock run out?
Supply, not demand, is the constraint to watch. Refurbished inventory comes from trade-ins, and trade-ins come from people buying new devices. IDC forecasts new shipments down 13.9% in 2026 and a further 1.1% in 2027, with rebound not expected until 2028. Fewer new purchases means fewer devices entering the buyback pipeline roughly one to two quarters later, in the same window that price-driven demand for refurbished is rising.
Why did my refurbished phone cost more than last year?
Refurbished pricing tracks new pricing. Counterpoint measures the typical gap at 30% to 50% below the new price, and a percentage discount applied to a higher new price gives a higher refurbished price. Counterpoint also recorded refurbished average selling prices rising in Latin America during H2 2025 as weak upgrade activity thinned the supply of recent-generation devices.
How long will a refurbished phone bought in the EU keep getting security updates?
Under the ecodesign rules applying since June 20, 2025, manufacturers must supply operating system updates for at least five years from the date the last unit of a model was placed on the EU market, and spare parts for at least seven years after that date. The clock runs from the model’s withdrawal from sale, not from your purchase, so a device that left the market three years ago has roughly two years of guaranteed updates remaining.
Does a right-to-repair law in my state cover a device I bought refurbished?
US repair statutes generally place obligations on manufacturers regarding parts, tools and documentation rather than conditioning them on how a device was purchased. Coverage is geographic and partial: PIRG puts the covered share of the US population at 25.75% as of January 1, 2026, reaching at least 35.5% by autumn once Connecticut and Texas take effect. Check the specific statute in your state for device categories and effective dates.
Why do refurbished market-size estimates differ so wildly between reports?
Because most of them are modelled rather than measured. Axis Intelligence Research found published 2026 estimates for the refurbished computer market ranging from about $6 billion to $24 billion for the same product scope. The smartphone secondary market has a real instrumented pipeline through carrier and retailer trade-in programmes; other device categories mostly do not, and the estimates fill that gap with assumptions.
Which brands dominate refurbished, and why is it not the same as new?
Apple holds 58% of the global refurbished smartphone market, per Counterpoint — well above its new-market share. Refurbished buyers are shopping for last-generation premium specification at a mid-range price, and iPhones hold residual value and enjoy long software support, which keeps older units viable in the channel longer.
Does buying refurbished actually cut e-waste at scale?
It reduces intake, not disposal. The UNITAR/ITU Global E-waste Monitor 2024 recorded 62 million tonnes of e-waste in 2022 with only 22.3% formally collected and recycled, projecting 82 million tonnes by 2030. Extending device lifespans slows the growth of that volume; it does nothing about the roughly three-quarters of e-waste that never reaches formal recycling.
Is North America a bad market for refurbished right now?
It is a low-pressure market, which is different from a bad one. Axis Intelligence Research’s RSPI reads 22.1 for North America against 80.0 for the Middle East and Africa. US retail smartphone prices rose 5% in 2026 versus 18% in MEA, and carrier financing absorbs much of the increase. North America’s role in 2026 is as a supplier of high-grade trade-in inventory more than as a demand centre.