Demand for pre-owned laptops, mobiles rises as classes go online

Chennai: With schools and colleges taking to online classes, students are firing up demand for pre-owned and refurbished phones, tablets and laptops, given that the prices of new gadgets have been rising, during the lockdown.

Pre-owned smartphone seller Cashify has seen a 40% increase in orders. Mandeep Singh, founder, of the company said, “Online classes have been happening for over 3 months and students want to buy smartphones where they can watch uninterrupted video lessons for over 3-4 hours at a stretch.”

Used Apple iPads — are sold at around Rs 15,000 and the average price of smartphone is at Rs 9,000. Tablets with Android OS have few takers while laptops with basic and intermediate configurations move fast.

Riddhima S from Cognizant, Chennai, just purchased a refurbished laptop for Rs 22,000 for her son who is taking online classes. “We are working parents and it is difficult to share resources when we have work and he has to study. Plus, we don’t know how long the classes would go on for and investing too much on a laptop doesn’t make sense. It was a bargain to purchase a refurbished laptop with an i3 configuration that works well for online classes and basic projects that he needs to submit” she said.

Some of these sellers are tying up with non-profit organisations to provide used/refurbished laptops and tablets to the underprivileged students. “The demand from the students segment has gone up 5x to 7x over the past few months. We are working with Parikrama Foundation, an NGO, to supply laptops to the rural students and some of them are also being funded by philanthropists. Considering the retail demand alone, tablets see faster movement since they have a larger screen,” said Rohit Pagaria, founder, Budli. In the case of Vijayalakshmi, she picked up a refurbished Dell laptop for her 10th grade son for whom the online classes are on full steam. “We dont know how long the online classes will go, and besides as a growing boy, my son will also need a personal device for himself,” she said. For PreLoved Device, students, who contributed less than 10% to the business pre-lockdown now take up 30% of the share. “They are brand agnostic and are looking for a phone at around Rs 6,000 to keep the online classes going and they prefer larger screens. We are just about managing the supply and demand situation because this segment is growing at 4-5x compared to February,” said Yogesh Bhatia, co-founder, PreLoved Device.