Second hand phones

Category: Phones | No Comments | Posted on September 3, 2005

Rediff has a story on the second-hand mobile phones market in India. The second-hand market is largely for GSM phones only.

“The second hand mobile phones cost anywhere between Rs 800 to 1500 here but in villages and small towns, 7 to 8 year old models are available even less”, says Madan, who runs the business in Central Delhi.

“The prices of the new models have also come down, which has helped this trend,” says Kumar, but a new customer in the lower end prefers to go mobile for as little an entry cost as Rs 800. Price is still the biggest determiner of choice, he says.

On the factors behind easy availability of second-hand phones:

Madan says “the Indian mobile phone user refuses to junk an old instrument but passes it on to a new low-end user, helping the second-hand market to thrive.”

“Every second day a new model hits the market. People now have the experience of using coloured handsets, camera phones and now there are even data enabled phones coming in the market.

Even if the following is not representative or average, the trend is worth noting.

Earlier a user changed the mobile every two years or so, now this time period has come down to 12 months or even less,” says Ashwani Kumar, a cellphone retailer.

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