Refurbished Smartphone Market Share 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Alex Rivera, Consumer Technology | Last updated: September 13, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
Apple holds 58% of the global refurbished smartphone market, against a new-market shipment share that has not exceeded 25% in any quarter since 2021. Counterpoint Research values global pre-owned smartphone revenue at $83 billion for 2025, or 19% of all smartphone sales value — the third consecutive year at that level.
Quick Answer
The refurbished smartphone market is growing while the new one shrinks, and the gap has never been this wide. Counterpoint Research forecasts global refurbished volumes up around 11% in 2026 while new smartphone shipments fall 14.3%. Axis Intelligence Research measures that gap as a Secondary Market Divergence of 25.3 percentage points — against 2.0 points in 2024. Apple leads globally at 58% refurbished share; Samsung leads India at 30%. Global refurbished average selling price was $394 in 2024.
Key Findings
- Axis Intelligence Research finds the 2026 Secondary Market Divergence (SMD) — refurbished volume growth minus new shipment growth — at 25.3 percentage points globally, more than twelve times the 2.0-point gap recorded in 2024.
- Counterpoint Research reports Apple at 58% of the global refurbished smartphone market, up from 56% in 2024 and 51% in 2023.
- Axis Intelligence Research calculates Apple’s Brand Secondary Multiple at 2.94 for 2025, meaning Apple’s refurbished share runs nearly three times its share of new shipments.
- Counterpoint Research recorded India’s refurbished smartphone volumes up 13% year over year in H1 2026 while new smartphone volumes in the same market fell about 11%.
- Counterpoint Research measured the global refurbished smartphone average selling price at $394 in 2024, down from $445 in 2023, an 11% decline driven by scarcity of recent-generation iPhones.
How Big Is the Refurbished Smartphone Market in 2026?
Two numbers describe the whole category, and they point in opposite directions.
The first is stable. Counterpoint Research puts global pre-owned smartphone revenue at $83 billion for 2025, holding 19% of total smartphone sales value for the third year running. One in every five dollars spent on a smartphone anywhere in the world is now spent on a device somebody else already owned. That share has been remarkably flat.
The second number is not stable at all. Counterpoint forecasts global refurbished volumes to grow roughly 11% in 2026, and separately forecasts new smartphone shipments to fall 14.3% across the same year. Those two forecasts come from the same research house, built on the same tracker infrastructure, which is what makes the comparison worth drawing.
| Metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global pre-owned smartphone revenue | $83 billion | 2025 | Counterpoint Research |
| Pre-owned share of total smartphone sales value | 19% | 2025 | Counterpoint Research |
| Global refurbished volume growth, forecast | ~11% | 2026 | Counterpoint Research |
| Global new shipment growth, forecast | −14.3% | 2026 | Counterpoint Research |
| Global refurbished volume growth, actual | +5% | 2024 | Counterpoint Research |
| Global new shipment growth, actual | +3% | 2024 | Counterpoint Research |
| Latin America refurbished volume share | 11% | 2025 | Counterpoint Research |
| Latin America refurbished market value | Above $4 billion | 2025 | Counterpoint Research |
Alex Rivera: The flat 19% revenue share is the statistic everyone quotes and the one that tells you least. Revenue share stays flat because refurbished ASPs move with new ASPs — the discount is a percentage, so when new prices climb, refurbished climbs behind them and the ratio holds. Volume is where the behaviour change shows up. Watch units, not dollars.
The Axis Secondary Market Divergence (SMD)
SMD — Secondary Market Divergence. The gap, in percentage points, between refurbished smartphone volume growth and new smartphone shipment growth over the same period, in the same market, measured by the same source.
Most coverage of this category reports refurbished growth in isolation: refurbished is up 11%. On its own that number means little, because 11% growth in a rising new market is an accessory business and 11% growth in a collapsing one is substitution. SMD separates the two.
Formula
SMD = G_refurb − G_new (percentage points)
G_refurb = refurbished smartphone volume growth, YoY, %
G_new = new smartphone shipment growth, YoY, %
Both inputs must cover the same market, the same period, and come from the same tracker family. We do not mix an IDC shipment figure with a Counterpoint refurbished figure, because the two houses define shipments and sell-through differently and the subtraction would produce a spread that is partly a methodology artefact.
Positive SMD means the secondary channel is taking demand the primary channel is losing. Negative SMD means buyers are choosing new. Zero means the two are moving together, which is what a healthy accessory market looks like.
SMD readings, September 2026
| Market and period | Refurbished growth | New shipment growth | SMD | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Global, 2024 | +5.0% | +3.0% | +2.0 pp | Actual, Counterpoint Research |
| India, H1 2026 | +13.0% | −11.0% | +24.0 pp | Actual, Counterpoint Research |
| Global, 2026 | +11.0% | −14.3% | +25.3 pp | Forecast, Counterpoint Research |
These are baseline readings. Axis Intelligence Research finds that global SMD has widened from 2.0 points to 25.3 points in two years — a factor of more than twelve. India’s H1 2026 reading of 24.0 points is close to the global 2026 forecast, and it is an observed figure rather than a projection, which makes it the strongest available evidence that the forecast gap is already materialising in real sell-through.
2025 is absent from the table on purpose. Counterpoint published a refurbished growth figure for H1 2025 (+3%) but we could not retrieve a matching full-year refurbished figure from a source we opened, and pairing a half-year refurbished number against a full-year shipment number would produce a reading that looks comparable to the others and is not.
Alex Rivera: A 25-point divergence is not consumers discovering sustainability. It is the entry tier disappearing. When a brand deletes its $150 model because memory now eats the margin, the buyer who wanted a $150 phone does not buy a $300 one. He buys a three-year-old flagship for $200 and gets better hardware than the model that vanished. The refurbished channel is absorbing a price band the primary market abandoned.
Which Brands Dominate Refurbished Smartphone Market Share?
Apple. And not narrowly.
Counterpoint puts Apple at 58% of the global refurbished smartphone market, a share built over three years: 51% in 2023, 56% in 2024, 58% now. Samsung moved the other way, from 27% in 2023 to 24% in 2024.
Global refurbished smartphone brand share
| Brand | 2023 | 2024 | Latest reading | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | 51% | 56% | 58% | Counterpoint Research |
| Samsung | 27% | 24% | Not published | Counterpoint Research |
The Brand Secondary Multiple
A brand’s refurbished share only means something next to its new-market share. Axis Intelligence Research computes the ratio directly.
BSM — Brand Secondary Multiple. A brand’s share of the refurbished market divided by its share of new shipments over the same year. Above 1.0, the brand punches above its weight in the secondary channel. Below 1.0, its devices leave the installed base faster than they re-enter it.
BSM = refurbished_share_% ÷ new_shipment_share_%
New-shipment share comes from Counterpoint’s quarterly market share series, averaged unweighted across the four quarters of the year. That average is an Axis calculation, not a Counterpoint annual figure, and it is unweighted — Q4 ships more units than Q2, so a volume-weighted annual share would sit slightly closer to Apple’s strong fourth quarters.
| Brand | Year | Refurbished share | Mean quarterly new share | BSM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | 2024 | 56% | 18.25% | 3.07 |
| Apple | 2025 | 58% | 19.75% | 2.94 |
| Samsung | 2024 | 24% | 18.5% | 1.30 |
Axis Intelligence Research finds Apple’s Brand Secondary Multiple at 2.94 for 2025 and Samsung’s at 1.30 for 2024 — a gap of 1.64. Apple’s devices are roughly three times as over-represented in the refurbished channel as its new-market position would predict. Samsung’s are only modestly over-represented.
Three mechanics drive that. iPhones hold residual value, so a trade-in is worth collecting and reselling rather than scrapping. Apple’s software support runs long enough that a four-year-old iPhone still receives updates, which keeps it saleable. And refurbished buyers are not shopping for last year’s mid-range — they are shopping for a former flagship at a mid-range price, and Apple’s flagship is the one with aspirational pull in almost every market.
Alex Rivera: Ask the question from the refurbisher’s side. You are buying trade-in stock at auction and you have to move it in ninety days. An iPhone 13 has a known resale price, a known parts supply, and a buyer waiting. A three-year-old Android mid-ranger has none of those, which is why a lot of it never becomes graded inventory at all. Apple’s 58% is partly demand and partly the fact that everything else is harder to sell.
Why Does Samsung Lead Refurbished in India and Apple Lead Globally?
Because “the refurbished market” is not one market, and this is the finding most global coverage flattens away.
Counterpoint’s H1 2026 pre-owned data, reported by Business Standard and IANS, puts Samsung at 30% of India’s organised refurbished smartphone market and Apple at 23%, with vivo at 10% and everything else at 37%.
India organised refurbished smartphone share, H1 2026
| Brand | Share | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung | 30% | Counterpoint Research |
| Apple | 23% | Counterpoint Research |
| vivo | 10% | Counterpoint Research |
| Others | 37% | Counterpoint Research |
Apple’s global 58% and its Indian 23% are the same brand in the same year. The 35-point gap is entirely a function of what is in the local installed base to trade in. India’s new-device market has been dominated by Android for a decade, so the devices flowing into buyback channels are Galaxy S-series and vivo handsets. A refurbished market cannot sell what nobody owned.
That also explains the direction of travel. Counterpoint identified the iPhone 13 as a preferred refurbished model in India, and Apple grew 19% year over year in India’s pre-owned market in H1 2025 while Samsung slipped 1%. India’s refurbished Apple share is a lagging indicator of India’s new-market Apple share, running roughly a device generation behind.
How Fast Is Refurbished Growing by Region?
Growth concentrates where new devices are least affordable, which is the opposite of where the revenue sits.
Refurbished and pre-owned growth by region, H1 2025
| Region | Growth (YoY) | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | +6% | Strongest region; organised players pulling volume from informal channels | Counterpoint Research |
| India | +5% | Apple +19%, Samsung −1% | Counterpoint Research |
| Southeast Asia | +5% | Apple covering half the market, +15% YoY | Counterpoint Research |
| Emerging markets (average) | +4% | Africa, India, SEA, China, LATAM | Counterpoint Research |
| Mature markets (average) | +1% | USA, Europe, Japan | Counterpoint Research |
| Global | +3% | — | Counterpoint Research |
Latin America is the region to watch into 2026. Counterpoint forecasts LATAM refurbished growth at 12% against a global 11%, and reports the region moving from informal resale toward graded, warrantied channels — 44% volume growth between 2021 and 2025 on that transition alone. Refurbished now holds an 11% volume share in LATAM and over $4 billion in value.
Mature markets are doing something different and less discussed: they are turning into suppliers. Counterpoint describes US, European and Japanese volumes as flat, tempered by limited supply and declining export flows to emerging markets. North America was the only region to grow new shipments in Q2 2026, at 6% year over year, on the strength of carrier financing and premium mix. Every one of those financed upgrades produces a high-grade trade-in.
Alex Rivera: The uncomfortable structure of this market is that demand and supply live on different continents. High-pressure markets want refurbished stock and generate almost none of it, because nobody upgrades when the upgrade got 20% more expensive. Low-pressure markets keep upgrading on instalments and keep feeding good inventory into the channel. The devices flow one way; the demand flows the other. Export friction, not consumer appetite, is the constraint that decides 2027.
How Much Do Refurbished Smartphones Cost in 2026?
There is no single refurbished discount. There are at least three, and they differ by more than a factor of three.
Refurbished discount by channel
| Channel | Stated discount vs new | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| OEM certified store (Apple) | Up to 15% | September 2026 | Apple |
| Independent marketplace (Back Market, US) | 40–50% typical | September 2026 | Back Market |
| Market-wide refurbished vs new gap | 30–50%, or $50–$200 | 2026 | Counterpoint Research |
Apple’s own certified refurbished store advertises savings of up to 15%, with a one-year warranty, a new battery and a new outer shell. Independent marketplaces advertise 40–50% on comparable models. Counterpoint’s market-wide measurement of the new-to-refurbished gap sits at 30–50%, or $50 to $200 in absolute terms.
Axis Intelligence Research finds the OEM-certified channel roughly one-third as generous as the independent channel on headline discount. That is not a pricing anomaly. Apple’s certified units carry a new battery, a new enclosure and a full warranty, which is a different product from a Grade A marketplace device with 84% battery health. The 15% figure buys warranty parity with new; the 45% figure buys the device.
Global refurbished average selling price
| Year | ASP | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $445 | — | Counterpoint Research |
| 2024 | $394 | −11% | Counterpoint Research |
The 2024 ASP fall was a supply story, not a discount story. Counterpoint attributes it to a shortage of recent-generation iPhones: consumers held their iPhone 13 and 14 devices longer, so the mix flowing through the channel skewed toward the iPhone 11 and 12, which sell for less. Direction reversed in 2025 — Counterpoint recorded refurbished ASPs rising in Latin America during H2 2025 after weak upgrade response to the Galaxy S25 and iPhone 17 launches thinned the supply of newer devices.
Alex Rivera: Do the per-year maths before you decide the discount evaporated. A certified iPhone at 15% off with a new battery and a year of warranty will realistically serve four years. A marketplace unit at 45% off with 84% battery health will serve two before you pay for a battery. That is $X/4 against $0.55X/2 — and the cheaper sticker is the more expensive phone. The grading label is the whole purchase decision and most buyers scroll past it.
What Share of Refurbished Phones Are 5G?
The refurbished channel runs roughly two device generations behind the new one, and 5G is the clearest measure of how fast that lag closes.
| Metric | 2023 | 2024 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5G share of global refurbished smartphone sales | 28% | 42% | Counterpoint Research |
A 14-point jump in one year is the post-2020 upgrade wave arriving in the secondary channel. Counterpoint notes the 2024 share would have been higher still if not for low stock of newer iPhones traded in between Q2 and Q4.
One structural shift sits alongside it. Sales of “as is” smartphones — cleaned and repackaged with no technical work performed — grew 13% year over year in 2024. Counterpoint attributes this to two things at once: trade-ins arriving in better condition because devices got more durable, and rising costs of spare parts, labour and equipment pushing operators to skip refurbishment entirely to protect margin. Both point the same direction. The “refurbished” label is doing less work than it did three years ago, which is exactly why grading disclosure matters more.
What Happens to Refurbished Supply in 2027?
This is the question the 2026 data raises and does not answer, so it is worth stating the mechanism plainly rather than forecasting a number we cannot source.
Refurbished inventory comes from trade-ins. Trade-ins come from people buying new devices. Counterpoint forecasts new shipments down 14.3% in 2026 and a further 1.4% in 2027, with recovery not expected until 2028 at around 4.8% growth. Fewer new purchases in 2026 means fewer devices entering buyback pipelines through 2027, in the same window that price-driven demand for refurbished is rising.
Counterpoint’s own 2026 outlook notes that OEMs are expected to lean further into refurbished and previous-generation devices to retain budget-conscious buyers. That is the primary market competing for the same finite pool of returned hardware that independent refurbishers depend on.
Axis Intelligence Research does not publish a 2027 refurbished supply forecast, because no primary tracker we could open publishes trade-in intake volumes as a public series. What the SMD readings do establish is that demand-side divergence is already at 24–25 points. If supply tightens on the schedule the shipment forecasts imply, the constraint on refurbished growth in 2027 is inventory, not appetite.
Methodology
Collection. Every figure on this page was retrieved from a source document opened on September 13, 2026. Primary sources, all fetched and verified live: Counterpoint Research’s LATAM refurbished market insight of April 27, 2026 (citing its Global Pre-Owned Smartphone Market Report, H2 2025); Counterpoint’s global refurbished market release of February 24, 2025; Counterpoint’s global pre-owned landscape insight of October 13, 2025; Counterpoint’s Smartphone Market Outlook release of August 22, 2026; Counterpoint’s quarterly Global Smartphone Market Share data page, updated August 26, 2026; and Apple’s Certified Refurbished iPhone store page.
Axis-calculated figures.
- Secondary Market Divergence. SMD = refurbished volume growth − new shipment growth, in percentage points, same market, same period, same source house. Global 2024: 5 − 3 = 2.0. Global 2026 forecast: 11 − (−14.3) = 25.3. India H1 2026: 13 − (−11) = 24.0. Widening factor 25.3 ÷ 2.0 = 12.65, reported as “more than twelve times.”
- Brand Secondary Multiple. BSM = refurbished share ÷ mean quarterly new shipment share for the same year. Apple 2024: 56 ÷ 18.25 = 3.07, where 18.25 is the unweighted mean of Counterpoint’s published quarterly shares (17, 16, 17, 23). Apple 2025: 58 ÷ 19.75 = 2.94, from (19, 17, 18, 25). Samsung 2024: 24 ÷ 18.5 = 1.30, from (20, 19, 19, 16). The unweighted mean is an Axis construction; Counterpoint does not publish an annual share on this page.
- Apple global-versus-India share gap. 58 − 23 = 35 percentage points, comparing Counterpoint’s global refurbished share against its India organised refurbished share for H1 2026.
- Channel discount ratio. Apple’s stated “up to 15%” against Back Market’s stated 40–50% typical range, reported as approximately one-third as generous on headline discount. Both are vendor-stated figures for their own channels, dated September 2026, and are not independently measured transaction prices.
Secondary retrieval. India’s H1 2026 figures — refurbished volumes +13%, new volumes −11%, the 16% full-year forecast, and the Samsung 30% / Apple 23% / vivo 10% brand split — reach us through Business Standard and IANS reporting of a Counterpoint Research report we could not open directly. They are flagged is_primary = no in the dataset. The India SMD reading of 24.0 rests on them and is labelled accordingly.
Definitional note. “Pre-owned” and “refurbished” are not interchangeable, and conflating them is the most common error in this category. Pre-owned covers the whole secondary market including private resale and unrepaired devices. Refurbished is the subset passing through a commercial process of testing, data wiping, part replacement, grading and warranty. The $83 billion and 19% figures are pre-owned. The 11% growth forecast and the brand shares are refurbished. They carry different denominators.
Not published. We did not compute a global refurbished unit volume, because Counterpoint publishes growth rates and revenue publicly but not a public global unit base. We did not construct an LATAM SMD reading, because no matching full-year LATAM new-shipment forecast was available from the same source. We did not average the three channel discount figures into a single “average refurbished discount,” because they measure different products under different warranty terms.
About This Dataset
refurbished-smartphone-market-share.csv contains every figure cited on this page, one observation per row, with metric, value, unit, as-of date, source organisation, source document, source URL, retrieval date, a primary-source flag, an Axis-calculated flag and, for calculated rows, the formula used.
Values are raw: no currency symbols, no percent signs, no thousands separators. Dates are ISO 8601. Missing values are NA.
License: CC BY 4.0. Free to use, republish and redistribute with attribution.
Citation line: Axis Intelligence Research, Refurbished Smartphone Market Share 2026, 2026.
Cite this page
APA — Axis Intelligence Research. (2026). Refurbished smartphone market share 2026: Brands, sales, prices and the new-vs-refurbished divergence. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/refurbished-smartphone-market-share/
MLA — Axis Intelligence Research. “Refurbished Smartphone Market Share 2026: Brands, Sales, Prices and the New-vs-Refurbished Divergence.” Axis Intelligence, 13 Sept. 2026, axis-intelligence.com/refurbished-smartphone-market-share/.
Chicago — Axis Intelligence Research. “Refurbished Smartphone Market Share 2026: Brands, Sales, Prices and the New-vs-Refurbished Divergence.” Axis Intelligence, September 13, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/refurbished-smartphone-market-share/.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which brand has the largest refurbished smartphone market share in 2026?
Apple, at 58% of the global refurbished smartphone market according to Counterpoint Research, up from 56% in 2024 and 51% in 2023. Samsung is second, at 24% in 2024. Axis Intelligence Research calculates Apple’s Brand Secondary Multiple at 2.94, meaning its refurbished share runs nearly three times its share of new shipments.
Why is Samsung ahead of Apple in India’s refurbished market?
Because a refurbished market can only sell devices the local installed base already owned. Counterpoint’s H1 2026 data puts Samsung at 30% of India’s organised refurbished market against Apple’s 23% — a 35-point swing from Apple’s 58% global share. India’s new-device market has been Android-dominated for a decade, so Galaxy S-series handsets are what flows into buyback channels. Apple’s Indian refurbished share is rising as a lagging effect of its rising new-market share.
Is it cheaper to buy refurbished from Apple or from a marketplace?
The marketplace is cheaper on sticker; Apple is cheaper on warranty-adjusted terms. Apple’s certified refurbished store advertises up to 15% off with a new battery, new outer shell and a full one-year warranty. Independent marketplaces advertise 40–50% off on comparable models, typically at a stated battery health below 100%. The two are different products at different risk levels, which is why Axis Intelligence Research does not average them into a single discount figure.
What is the average price of a refurbished smartphone?
Counterpoint Research measured the global refurbished smartphone average selling price at $394 in 2024, down from $445 in 2023. The decline was caused by supply mix rather than discounting: a shortage of traded-in iPhone 13 and 14 units pushed sales toward older iPhone 11 and 12 models.
Are refurbished phone prices going up in 2026?
Refurbished prices track new prices, because the discount is set as a percentage rather than an absolute. Counterpoint measures the new-to-refurbished gap at 30–50%, or $50–$200, so a higher new price produces a higher refurbished price at a constant discount. Counterpoint also recorded refurbished ASPs rising in Latin America during H2 2025 as weak upgrade response thinned the supply of recent-generation stock.
Which refurbished iPhone and Galaxy models sell most?
Counterpoint identified the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 as the models driving Apple’s 2024 refurbished growth, with the iPhone 12 and 13 series dominating mature-market refurbished sales and the iPhone 13 flagged as a preferred model in India. On the Samsung side, the Galaxy S20 ranked among top-selling refurbished devices in Africa, and Galaxy S22 and S21 among the top sellers in India.
What percentage of refurbished smartphones are 5G?
5G devices made up 42% of global refurbished smartphone sales in 2024, up from 28% in 2023, per Counterpoint Research. The 14-point jump reflects the 2020–2022 upgrade wave reaching the secondary channel. Counterpoint notes the share would have been higher without low trade-in stock of newer iPhones through the second half of 2024.
What is the difference between a “refurbished” and an “as is” phone?
A refurbished device has been tested, wiped, repaired where needed, graded and warrantied. An “as is” device has been cleaned and repackaged with no technical work performed. The distinction matters commercially: Counterpoint recorded “as is” sales growing 13% year over year in 2024, driven both by better-condition trade-ins and by rising parts and labour costs pushing operators to skip refurbishment to protect margin.
Will refurbished phone stock run short in 2027?
Supply is the constraint to watch, not demand. Refurbished inventory originates in trade-ins, and trade-ins originate in new-device purchases. Counterpoint forecasts new shipments down 14.3% in 2026 and a further 1.4% in 2027, with recovery only from 2028. Fewer new purchases means fewer devices entering buyback pipelines roughly one to two quarters later — in the same window that Axis Intelligence Research measures demand-side divergence at 24–25 percentage points.
Does a high refurbished market share mean a brand is losing new sales?
Not directly. A high Brand Secondary Multiple indicates strong residual value and long software support, both of which make a device worth collecting and reselling. Apple’s 2.94 multiple coexists with the highest quarterly new-market share it has recorded outside a launch quarter — 25% in Q4 2025 and 21% in Q2 2026, per Counterpoint. Secondary-market strength and primary-market strength reinforce each other through trade-in value at the point of upgrade.
Related Axis Research
- Refurbished Electronics Statistics 2026: Market Size, Prices and Consumer Adoption — the cross-category view, including the Axis Refurbished Substitution Pressure Index by region and the 2026 new-device price shock.
- Smartphone Statistics — installed base, shipments and brand share across the primary market.
- Consumer Tech & Hardware research — the full Axis Intelligence Research consumer hardware dataset library.