India is quietly becoming the center of gravity for the world's second-life device economy. The 2026 data shows a market growing on value, not novelty — and a country that learned to assemble phones is now positioned to industrialise renewing them.
A market growing on value, not novelty
India's used and refurbished smartphone market has been on a steep climb, with projections putting it in the multi-billion-dollar range and growing at a ~14% CAGR through the early 2030s. It sits inside a wider Asia-Pacific refurbished-and-used phone market that analysts size at roughly $16.5 billion in 2025, heading toward $147 billion by 2035 — a ~24% compound rate, the fastest of any region. Asia-Pacific already accounts for close to 39% of the global refurbished market.
Who's selling, who's buying
In India's refurbished market, premium brands lead the resale value chain. Apple has held around a 25% share of refurbished sales, with Apple, Xiaomi and Samsung together accounting for close to two-thirds of all used-phone sales. The pattern is familiar worldwide: high-value devices hold their worth, so they cycle through the second-life market again and again.
From assembly to renewal
Over the last decade India built a genuine phone-assembly industry. The next industry is renewing those phones — and it calls for the same discipline. Refurbishment at scale isn't a repair counter; it's a production line with standardized process, station-level QC, measured yield and per-unit traceability. India has the manufacturing culture, the technical workforce and the domestic demand to lead it.
The country that learned to make a billion phones is uniquely placed to renew them — at manufacturing scale.
What it means for businesses
- Brands & retailers: trade-in and reverse-logistics programs turn India's vast installed base into a recurring source of recovered value.
- Distributors & sellers: the constraint isn't demand — it's consistent, certified, channel-ready supply.
- Enterprises: renewed devices cut both cost and Scope 3 emissions at the same time.
De Novo is building exactly this from Hyderabad: refurbishment run as manufacturing, for partners across India and four regions beyond it.
Sources
- Business Standard — India refurbished smartphone market outlook
- IMARC — India used smartphone market size & CAGR
- Counterpoint Research — brand share & refurbished data
- Persistence Market Research — Asia-Pacific market sizing