Used smartphone sales to hit record high in Japan amid price hikes

Good. Electronic recycling should always be popular. We need a lot more of it.

The price of news phones is ridiculous. Absurd. An absolute scam. The market history of modern electronics is that price goes down and performance goes up. Japan built global corporate empires on this fact.

As much as I really hate giant corporations, I can't blame the phone makers for taking advantage of such a gullible market. And that makes me sad.

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There are a lot of good used phones. Mine bought three years ago at a low price still works very well. Freedom to choose the provider. No insurance which is the only risk

It's good that using pre-owned goods/items (in general) are becoming a normal thing

I've bought and used a lot of pre-owned items but never a smart phone so far

But I've been using my iPhone 8 that i bought new for around 7 years now

I guess one thing people should do is not to keep "upgrading" unless it's is really necessary

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The problem is that Apple's and Android phones' security support ends after 5 to 7 years. If it's not your main phone, your probably not saving that much. Fine for a travel phone, etc., through, if you don't run any financial apps or anything with important data.

Prices in Japan are insane at the moment. Wanted to get an iPad for editing while I'm moving around (5 months out of the year) but ... $650 in US but ¥115,000 in JP. The same goes for any camera gear and lenses, mountaineering gear, and the like. Crazy!!! And traveling outside of Japan with Japanese yen!? Ha!

The problem is that Apple's and Android phones' security support ends after 5 to 7 years

Two OS updates for most Android makers and just 3-4 years of security patches. This scam that should be addressed, not carriers restricting use of unpaid devices.

I got one of those restricted devices basically 50% off retail. Called a Red Rom, these are locked out by the carrier after unpaid bills. Big discount for me and works with my carrier fine. Beware of Black Rom devices though. These are completely locked out of ALL carriers.

Garthgoyle, are you saying that domestic prices are very high? For items such as camera and lens, mountaineering gear, guitars, etc. the local Hard Off branch has always been my 'go to' store...

It is only going to get worse as the gap between inflation and wage hike widens, people can NO LONGER afford to by new, Japan is in for a major shake up unless TAXES drop and wages increase to catches up with inflation.

New Homes, Cars, Appliances, Motorcycles, even bicycles sales will all see a decrease as REFURBISHED like new will take over these markets like the rest of Asia.

When 10 to 15% of your salary is sieged the the Tax collectors what left for you is never enough no matter how hard you work, you are being scammed left right and center and it wont stop unless you take control and start canceling policies, contracts, and services.

bought a 3 year old unlocked Xperia 5 years ago, for 10% the cost of a new one..... trouble-free....

Smart. Why buy a Brandnew phone? Most people dont use all the features.

Until my current iPhone 12 (2020) I changed it every two years with an upgrade program. I then decided I would use it for five years until the end of 2025.

Refurbished phones can be found for good prices. Check out Back Market.

Most iPhones tend to get between six and eight years of support, which is way more than almost everything you can find in the Android sphere.

@wallace

six and eight years of support, which is way more than almost everything you can find in the Android sphere.

My Android is good for 7 years, and its price tag was about half of the comparable iPhone's.

JeffLee

six and eight years of support, which is way more than almost everything you can find in the Android sphere.

My Android is good for 7 years, and its price tag was about half of the comparable iPhone's.

What is the make model and price?

"yen's depreciation and higher material costs" I like how the author clearly puts the blame here instead of blatent price gouging from the big 3 carriers and electronic stores. Japan cell phones are extremely over priced with no competition at all. Same with tablets and other electronics. In America a tablet I was looking at was $350, but in Japan it was nearly 8万円(8 man yen). I kept telling the reps at the electronics store that the price was absurdly high for no reason. You can even just go on Amazon.com and have good tablets shipped directly from the US to Japan for cheaper. Even after import fees. If there's not enough competition, then there isn't any reason to lower retail prices.

I see used iPhone 14 selling for over 83,000 yen with a C grade. This is just absurd and you might as well get a new one which will have a higher resale value when it comes time to trade in. Still using my 12 pro strong and the design has barely changed so that's a huge plus. I'm a former Sony smartphone fan but chose to switch because there wasn't a time I didn't run into bugs and issues with all my Xperias. Still love them and hope they can make good phones with designs as good as the arc.

Love buying used goods in Japan since they are genuinely well kept and you can fetch them for very low prices. But smartphones are a bit of a stretch since those shops likely bought those smartphones cheap and are selling them to you with a huge markup.

Wouldn't recommend buying a second hand smartphone, you never know what the person before has done with it and how they have handled the device. You keep all your sensitive info/ apps on this device so it's better to get a new one and take good care of it. You don't want something that might have some bugs and wipe out or not protect your photos, apps or log in data. Just my opinion

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The prices for new smartphones are absurd. The last one I got was basically free since I switched to a new provider (Rakuten Mobile) and had a free handset as an incentive.

But when or if I buy the next one, I'd seriously consider putting up for a used one. Most of them work just fine, according to people I know who've bought them, and they're less than a half to a third of the price of a new one.

Totally worth it and even the low-end models work very well and are more than capable of handling the things I need a smartphone for. Don't need to pay the price of a used car for a little handset.

The age of throwing things away at half shelf life is OVER.

Soon providers will start selling USED phones, just watch and see.

Wallace

What is the make model and price?

Pixel 8a. 90, 000 yen at the Docomo store, whilst the iphone 15 was 160,000. In most of the reviews I researched, their performance was neck and neck. Security and other support until May 2031.

https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705?hl=en#zippy=%2Cpixel-a-pixel-pixel-pro

JeffLee

What is the make model and price?

Pixel 8a. 90, 000 yen at the Docomo store, whilst the iphone 15 was 160,000. In most of the reviews I researched, their performance was neck and neck. Security and other support until May 2031.

The iPhone 15 from Apple is ¥113,000 and the iPhone 15 Plus ¥125,000. Supported until 2030 but will work beyond that.

Fr Apple users the iPhone is better and works across all devices.

My friend purchased I phone 14 from Mercari for 60,000JPY last year it was almost new with original Apple battery at 89% cap. and so far it is doing great no issues at all. I will probably get 15 Refurbished this Xmas, looking forward to it.

WoodyLee, that's a steal! Hey if it works fine, why not? I personally would be skeptical on purchasing things off Mercari unless I can trust the user since I have already gotten scammed twice but thankfully Mercari was able to handle that for me. I still use the site and highly recommend everyone to try it.

What I was referring to was Back Market in my earlier post where the iPhone 14 is listed for 84,000 for a C grade:

https://www.backmarket.co.jp/ja-jp/p/iphone-14-128-sim/6071873a-0f13-4ad2-b546-5c0bf94a2ab3?l=12#scroll=false

Of course, this doesn't mean you can't find better deals on this site. I just find it funny that anyone would pay this much on a used iPhone with a C grade.

I was reading Apple was thinking of not releasing a new model every year.