Samsung Plans Sales of Refurbished High-end Smartphones

The old adage, “The best things to those who wait” has never been truer for Samsung fans. The company has made the decision to sell their high-end smartphones for lesser prices. How? By offering them as refurbished products, according to this report by Reuters. Initially, these refurbished phones will be the ones returned to the company by users who went for the update program in the US and Korea.

Even though recent devices like the S7 and S7 Edge have received various accolades, Samsung still haven’t the best year in terms of sales. Sure, things have improved since the S5 failure, but there’s still a long way to go. The Korean giant sees offering their high-end phones for lower prices as an opportunity to compete with Chinese players without compromising on the quality of their offerings.

To Buy or Not to Buy

Even though exact details are still not out, we can be assured that at least the top-end S series of phones as well as Note series can be sold as refurbished products for far less. India is also one of the markets being considered for this move, which will mean that consumers can seriously consider the Samsung flagships. The only problem is that refurbished phones haven’t traditionally done as well in the sub-continent, with many myths still surrounding the warranty and quality of a refurbished product.

According to the same Reuters article, Deloitte claims that the used smartphone market will be worth more than $17 billion this year, but whether or not this includes or excludes new markets like India is still unclear.

Some consumers may prefer to buy refurbished, used premium models in lieu of new budget brands, possibly cannibalizing sales of new devices from those budget manufacturers. – Deloitte

The Indian Angle

It’s no surprise to see Samsung targeting emerging markets like India, not only because Android users dominate in this region, but also because sales of smartphones are expected to rise and not hit plateau for a considerable amount of time.

Though the brand was successful in being numero uno in the country not so long ago, it was pegged back by lower-costing Chinese phones and it’s own pricing strategies which were over-ambitious, to put it mildly.

Moreover, with the imminent launch of Reliance’s (apparently) affordable Jio SIM cards, more and more users will switch to 4G phones, which not only will come with better internet connectivity speeds but also VoLTE (Voice over LTE). The timing of this strategy seems pretty calculative, but if it benefits the buyer, then we’re not complaining.

ALSO READ: How to Get Samsung Galaxy Note5/S7 Like Scrolling Screenshot on Any Android