What actually happens to company cell phones after they are used? The devices are surprisingly often scrapped or disappear into the drawer of some office desk, into storage or into a closet. However, the devices can easily be reprocessed (“refurbished”) and reused or sold.
Refurbishing conserves resources and extends useful life.
Sales of new smartphones have recently faltered somewhat. Anyone who follows industry news is familiar with the seemingly endless chain of bad news about stagnating or even falling sales figures.
Apple, for example, no longer officially announces its iPhone sales at all, much to the irritation of its investors (see also: Apple to remain silent on iPhone sales – shares fall sharply, in Manager Magazin).
In the final quarter of 2017, for example, there was a decline in smartphone sales for the first time, of almost five percent compared to the same period of the previous year. Even though sales rose again afterwards – the latest announcements on smartphone market development – particularly from Apple and Samsung – give little cause for euphoria among manufacturers.
One billion smartphones are sold every year
Nevertheless, more than a billion devices are still sold annually. This is an almost unimaginable figure, which makes it clear that discarded or defective cell phones with their components made of valuable precious metals and rare earths must not simply be thrown away or scrapped.
These primary resources, which are often mined under precarious conditions, can be conserved through recycling – or by extending the lifecycle of smartphones, for example, through so-called “refurbishing”. Refurbishing involves a quality-assured overhaul of mobile devices with the aim of remarketing them.
Higher smartphone performance corresponds to longer usage time
Ironically, the reason for the fluctuating buying interest is that the smartphone models of recent years are too powerful. This means that it is no longer just the current flagship models of the individual manufacturers that impress with high performance: models from previous generations also still perform quite well.
This is good for users and the environment alike, even if the manufacturers certainly do not appreciate the slump in sales.
The fact that refurbished smartphones are becoming more and more interesting for end users is, of course, also due to the ever-increasing sales prices of new devices: with an MSRP of around a thousand euros for an Android smartphone of the upper class or even over 1,500 euros for a current iPhone, almost everyone becomes a bargain hunter and searches accordingly on Internet marketplaces for well-preserved used devices.
For the smartphone market, this development has three specific consequences.
Refurbishing is changing smartphone buyer behavior.
First: demand is shifting.
With a refurbished device, you can quickly save a quarter or a third of the original price or even more. This means that models that were among the top current models just one or two years ago are suddenly affordable for buyers who would otherwise tend to opt for mid-range or entry-level models.
This means that the mid-range market is being cannibalized and demand is shifting to the more powerful top-of-the-range models, even if they are already a year or two old.
What’s more, refurbished devices usually come with a warranty – a real advantage compared to buying used devices from private individuals.
The used smartphone market is growing thanks to refurbishing
Secondly, the second-hand market for smartphones is growing significantly in contrast to new device sales.
Even enthusiastic smartphone users are no longer willing to go along with every device upgrade if they expect only marginal improvements in performance, display, camera or memory from the successor model. The days when iOS fanboys or Android devotees had to have the latest model ‘at all costs’ are definitely over.
The boom in used smartphones has led to a 13 percent growth in the used-device segment – a figure that manufacturers of new products can only dream of. It’s no wonder that Apple and Samsung have entered the refurbishing business themselves.
Stable residual value for decommissioned company cell phones
Thirdly, this also means that the residual value of smartphones remains stable for longer.
This means that after a useful life of two years, which is typical for most business cell phones, for example, a good price can still be obtained for the discarded device.
And this in turn means that companies now have an incentive to be interested in the continued use of the devices not only for ecological reasons, but also for financial reasons. This makes award models such as CYOD (“Choose Your Own Device”) and company cell phone rental models much more attractive, because the sale of old cell phone stocks (“buy and rent back”) or end-of-life devices can generate considerable income in some cases.
Company fleets: sell and refurbish company cell phones
How does this sale work in practice? With Everphone, customers can even sell their entire smartphone fleet while they are still using it: the devices are then leased back. We call this deal, which takes place purely on paper, a “buy and rent back”.
By switching to the Everphone rental model, companies benefit from much greater flexibility when upgrading and changing devices, a 24-hour replacement service and a clever solution for device management. If you want, you can also use the Mobile Device Management that we offer for free.
Refurbishing, Recycling, Remarketing
Discarded devices are refurbished in the Everphone workshop and then sold at a profit. If refurbishing is not worthwhile, Everphone recycles the components as much as possible and returns the cell phone remnants to the recycling loop in an environmentally friendly way. And that, in turn, is good for the environment.
Where do you stand with your company smartphones? Leave us a comment!
