April Round Up
Folding under pressure...
To anyone getting an extra day off over the weekend, enjoy it. To those of you who have to work, perhaps save this for Monday with your morning coffee, I mean absorbing this lot is a decent graft…
Market
Eurostat’s 2024 device disposal reveals that 51.2% of European consumers retain their old mobile phones at home, up from 49.1% in 20221. Ireland leads device hoarding at 69.3% whilst only 18.1% of Europeans sold their old devices. If you don't like those numbers, Recommerce's 2026 Barometer, fielded by Kantar across thirteen markets in January, offers a livelier reading2. It puts the share of Europeans who sold their previous mobile in the last twelve months at 37%, more than double Eurostat's figure. Some of that gap is genuine; most of it is methodological. The barometer surveys ages 11 to 65 and asks a flow question about a single previous device rather than measuring the stock of handsets accumulating in European drawers. The country mix also diverges: the UK and Switzerland are in, Ireland, the Nordics and the Baltics are out. None of which makes the Kantar fieldwork unsound, but it does explain why a refurbisher's barometer reads more buoyantly than a statistical agency's release.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation followed December's Keep it in use brief with a second, EU-specific white paper in March3, this time focused on the forthcoming Circular Economy Act. The diagnosis picks up where the earlier paper left off: fragmented national rules, EPR schemes tilted toward end-of-life recycling rather than reuse, double taxation of pre-owned goods, and a single market that still does not function for circular business models. The recommendations run three ways: First, harmonised EPR administration via a central EU-level digital one-stop shop, with mandatory eco-modulated fee criteria and an explicit exemption for second-hand goods already placed on the EU market from paying duplicate EPR fees. Second, coordinated reduced VAT rates on repair, reconditioning and resale of refurbished goods, together with simplified margin-scheme treatment for cross-border refurbishment and product-as-a-service models. Third, EU-level industrial alliances along priority value chains, with consumer electronics named explicitly alongside packaging and textiles. The Foundation asks the Commission how the directive could be linked to ESPR design requirements to reduce value destruction in end-of-life treatment. Regular readers will recognise that as the same gap I flagged in the December round-up, where I argued that ESPR governs design at manufacture, WEEE governs end-of-life, and the two are not connected in practice. The practical stakes are direct. Duplicate EPR fees have been a persistent friction for cross-border refurbishers; VAT margin-scheme treatment materially affects the unit economics of refurbishment platforms and leasing operators; and the WEEE-ESPR linkage is the first serious attempt to connect design incentives to end-of-life outcomes in consumer electronics. But, the Foundation is feeding into the Commission's proposal rather than drafting it, and the Omnibus-I simplification package sits awkwardly alongside making the overall direction of travel harder to read.
I saw a post on LinkedIn claiming that the EU had mandated user-replaceable smartphone batteries by 20274. It then seemed to proliferate all over the place and even ended up on various Facebook groups, those bastions of solid news reporting. I think this stems from the 18 February 2027 application date of Article 11 of the Batteries Regulation (2023/1542)5 but the reality lives in the parallel Ecodesign Regulation (2023/1670)6, which is considerably more nuanced. Annex II, point B 1.1(5)(c)(ii) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1670 permits manufacturers to restrict battery supply to professional repairers provided the device simultaneously meets IP67, a remaining capacity of at least 83% at 500 full charge cycles, and 80% at 1,000 full charge cycles. Apple has been engineering to precisely this lane since iPhone 15, publishing the 80% at 1,000 cycles specification and shipping IP68 across the Pro line; Samsung, Google and the rest of the Android pack are following the same path. The 2027 change is not going to be a return to poppable back covers but the continued formalisation of professional repair as the default service channel, with seven-year parts availability obligations, registered repairer regimes, and reasonable pricing clauses. I’m not surprised at the oversimplification, but it just highlights how, even with the best of intentions, misinformation about complex, overlapping legislation especially when amplified by AI, can set off a storm in the proverbial teacup.
Companies
Samsung Q1 2026 results proved a fascinating read for anyone following the chip crisis7. Standalone the mobile unit delivered Q1 2026 sales of KRW 37.5T (~$25.3bn) versus 36.2T (~$24.5bn) a year earlier (+4% YoY), with combined mobile (MX) & networks (NW) operating profit of KRW 2.8T (~$1.9bn) against 4.3T (~$2.9bn) in Q1 2025. That's roughly 7.3% operating margin versus around 11.6% twelve months ago. Samsung admits to it directly in the commentary: "Secured single-digit profitability via proactive cost optimization". Serious stuff for the launch quarter of your flagship series. Samsung publishes the operating profit at a combined (MX/NW) level and the loss-making NW will have offset MX to some extent. No need to guess the cause. Device Solutions (DS) posted KRW 81.7T (~$55.2bn) in revenue and KRW 53.7T (~$36.3bn) in operating profit, with Memory setting an all-time quarterly record on what Samsung attributes to "higher ASP" and "limited supply availability"; as MX buys memory internally, the same tightness driving DS to a roughly 66% operating margin is feeding through to the Galaxy bill of materials, masking what is in effect an internal transfer of value from MX to DS. The +4% revenue print also deserves calendar context. The S26 launched in mid-March against the S25's early-February launch, so Q1 26 captured roughly a fortnight of S26 sell-in versus close to two months of S25 a year earlier. Omdia reads the print as exceptionally strong on that basis, with shipments of 65.4 million units up 8% YoY8. The maths implies blended ASP softened by around 4% despite Samsung citing a mix skew toward Ultra; the explanation isn't obvious from the deck. Q2 guidance flags "Decline in profitability expected despite flagship-centric sales" and "diminishing launch effects", with a quietly damning H2 line about needing to "Address evolving customer needs through strengthening foldable product development" which I'll translate as: foldables aren't landing where Samsung had hoped. The wider implication is the interesting bit; if Samsung, with a memory division to lean on, cannot protect handset margin, the OEMs buying at arm's length presumably have it worse.
Apple's results landed the same evening, providing a fairly direct answer to the pricing-power question Samsung raised. Q2 FY26 iPhone revenue came in at $57.0bn versus $46.8bn a year earlier, up 21.7%; the H1 picture is $142.3bn versus $116.0bn (+22.7%), so two consecutive quarters of 20%-plus iPhone revenue growth9. Cook's "extraordinary demand for the iPhone 17 lineup" framing is doing real work in the numbers, not just PR. Apple stopped disclosing units in 2018, so the revenue line cannot be split between volume, mix and ASP from the financials alone, and the iPhone 17e launching during the quarter as a lower-priced entry point complicates the read further; if revenue grew 22% with a new lower-priced SKU added, underlying unit growth is likely material. With numbers like these, I’m not sure Apple need to be chasing a foldable unit, delayed or not10. The geographic distribution is unusual: every region up double-digits, with Greater China leading at +28.1% on a $20.5bn revenue line. The "Apple losing China" narrative that ran through most of 2024 and 2025 looks badly out of step with this print, although whether the lift is consumer electronics subsidies, Huawei capacity constraints, or iPhone 17 simply landing well remains an open question. The margin read is the more telling part for our purposes. Apple Products gross margin expanded YoY to 38.7%, while Samsung MX/NW operating margin compressed from around 11.6% to 7.3% over the same calendar quarter. Different line items either side of opex, but both moving meaningfully under the same memory tightness; only one is passing the cost through. The implication for European refurbishers is uncomfortable. If iPhone demand is genuinely running this hot, secondary supply tightens further as consumers hold devices longer or trade up rather than trade in.
Foxway is exactly the kind of business caught in that squeeze, and their Annual Financial and Sustainability Report for 202511 landed in April with a useful level of operational detail. Total inflows reached approximately 6.2 million units (5.7 million kilograms), of which 2,592,792 tech products were sold for reuse, 345,498 sent for recycling and a further 3.22 million components and accessories returned to circulation. Mobile phones dominate the reuse total at 1,078,748 units, ahead of laptops at 550,020 and other ICT equipment at 638,289. Reuse rates run at 90% for mobiles, tablets and computers combined, 88% across all tech products and 93% once components are included. The figures are not segmented by reporting business area, which limits cross-checking against revenue lines, but they sit awkwardly against the Mobile segment's wider trajectory; over a million units of mobile reuse passing through the business in a year that produced its lowest full-year EBITDA margin12 since Finsur coverage began. Ouch.
Following on from last month's note in the EU CE Recommerce analysis, the Back Market and Google ChromeOS Flex USB Kit went on sale on 30 March priced at $3 / €3 / £313. The pilot was 3,000 units capped at three per customer, and sold out in roughly 24 hours14. Whether the sell-out was deliberate or genuinely under-cooked supply, either explanation supports expansion. The additional commercial play is the line of HP and Lenovo laptops with ChromeOS Flex pre-installed that Back Market quietly began selling in September 2025, a month ahead of the Windows 10 end-of-support deadline15. The partnership was first aired publicly at "Slow Tech Uprising", a Back Market hosted side event timed to coincide with Mobile World Congress16; counter-programming as positioning, with Back Market staking a claim to host the device-longevity conversation while Fira Gran Via’s main halls sold the next handset cycle.
Google added the Pixel 8a to its US Certified Refurbished Pixel range on the Google Store, which already covered the 7a, 8, 8 Pro, 7 and 7 Pro17. "Our biggest Certified Refurbished expansion yet" is generous framing for adding one device to a six-device portfolio. The interesting bit is the channel choice; distribution runs through both the Google Store and Amazon Renewed, structurally distinct from Apple's direct-only model and Samsung's direct-plus-partner approach. Pricing claims up to 45% off original MSRP. No specific news on the European front, where Google Store refurbished availability remains uneven.
Recommerce capped a busy April with four announcements in 23 days. The opening move on 1 April was a refreshed e-commerce site built around four pillars aimed squarely at the sector's credibility problem: a 36-month warranty that exceeds both the EU consumer rights minimum and the warranty period on new devices, a Deal Certify traceability tool giving each product its own digital identity and diagnostic record, systematic battery replacement below 85% capacity, and the existing RecQ label from DEKRA. The 36 months is the commercial substance; the rest is dressing on a competitive shot at marketplace rivals offering less18. Twelve days later, a leadership refresh confirmed €210m revenue at +20% growth and dual Apple/Samsung Authorised Service Provider status, alongside five appointments to the supervisory board and a new “Tech Board”19. On 21 April, two ChatGPT-integrated apps launched, one for purchasing across Recommerce’s 7,000-product catalogue, the other issuing binding trade-in quotes from its real-time pricing matrix20. Claimed as a sector first, although the agentic commerce thesis remains unproven; OpenAI itself just deprioritised Instant Checkout and pivoted ChatGPT shopping towards product discovery21. Further news landed on 23 April, with Recommerce confirmed as the first global partner in Samsung’s Authorized Refurbisher Partner programme, gaining genuine parts, official diagnostic tools and a 100-plus checkpoint protocol focused on Galaxy S and Z premium ranges22.
Automation continues to be an operational focus with Apkudo and Qates announcing the Buff-Polish system on 14 April23, an automated screen restoration platform targeting high-volume processors and carriers. The pitch is industrial-grade scratched-screen polishing without replacement, with each Buff-Polish action logged automatically into Apkudo's Device Passport, which like Recommerce's Deal Certify, bets on traceable improvement history becoming a commercial unlock rather than back-office compliance. Throughput claims of 12 devices per hour need a refurbisher running the kit at scale to verify, but the directional point matters. Margin levers on cosmetics restoration are exactly what the squeezed middle of the sector needs. Getting it done at a cost befitting current European volumes might be art more than science.
Investments
Again, investment activity in the sector was notably quiet in April, with only two material disclosed deals, both in Asia and both at pre-Series A stage. Indonesian recommerce platform Kitar raised over $10 million, with sources crediting either Source Code Capital or Yuanma Lvdong as lead alongside Hike Capital and Mindworks Capital24. Founded by former Shopee executive Frank Zhou, Kitar is targeting Southeast Asia's fragmented secondhand smartphone market starting with Indonesia, where it operates 12 stores and partners with Shopee for trade-ins and with local distributors for Apple supply. India's Grest secured an undisclosed FDI from Japanese VC ICMG as part of an ongoing Pre-Series A, the company's first foreign investment25. Grest is materially smaller than Cashify, with FY25 revenue of ₹25.8 Cr (~$3 million) and an FY26 target of ₹50 Cr (~$6 million), but the cross-border early-stage capital is the editorially interesting bit; ICMG's framing references Japan's own consumer shift toward refurbished as the conviction driver. Beyond these, multiple cross-checks against primary sources, wire services and reputable secondary outlets surfaced no qualifying deals in European refurbishment, device protection, repair networks, or operator-led trade-in. Investors appear to be waiting out the memory cycle.
Good job on making it this far, next month I’m aiming to get the Telco Q1 equipment revenue update out, depending on release timings and there’s a few more company analyses lined up as well. Finally, a warm welcome and big thank you to my new subscribers, especially those of you that chose to pay. Publishing research takes time and effort. Thank you. Sincerely.
Peace,
sb.