Many may not be able to afford the latest Apple iPhones because of their sky high price tags, but the brand holds one of the leading positions in refurbished smartphones market, where they are sold out within a few minutes.

Though the life cycle of iPhones is longer as compared to many other brands, there is a lot of demand for the used iPhones said Jayant Jha, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, Yaantra, the company that deals in smartphone repairs and refurbishment category.

“The number of Apple phones available in the market is very low. Also, the average user will hold on to it for two years,” Jha told BusinessLine .

Zero cost EMI

“For our business, the demand has never been a problem. Also, importantly, consumers can often opt for a financing option, go for a zero cost EMI, they can pay with multiple instalments,” he said.

Apart from Apple products, in the secondary market, products that sell for ₹5,000-10,000 are doing really well, he said adding that Xiaomi or Samsung phones are pretty high in demand in that category.

“Currently, the refurbished smartphone market in India is around $4-5 billion in size. Almost 95 per cent of the market is still unorganised. However, there is a rapid shift happening from unorganised to organised,” he informed.

Looking at the size of the market opportunity, Jha said that Yaantra will expand its reach to 750 towns, cities from around 500 cities at present, and especially looking at expanding in tier-II, III markets in a big way since they are primary customers. “On the services side, we are already present in the tier-I metros and in the next 12-24 months, we plan to expand our network to another 10 large potential cities,” he added.

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