Thank you for an amazing year! 2021 review with gsmExchange

Before you break off for a well deserved break, we want to thank you for what turned out to be a fantastic year 2021.

The start of the year was somewhat uncertain: do you remember the lockdowns and life before the vaccine? But, pretty soon, we saw demand soar and shortages of stock kept everyone in the business hyper busy!

Leading the demand was used products; they have been booming worldwide (more than 800 offers/request daily) on our trading floor. We see demand in used to be strong in 2022 while scarcity in EU spec continuing.

Newer, more aggressive brands gained a stronger foothold in the trade business; Realme observed growth of 135% in 2021. Whereas, Infinix and Tecno gained worldwide popularity (70% of increase in requests), especially in USA, South America, and Europe. This trend is likely to continue into the next year with perhaps one or two newer brands gaining an entrance on the trading floor.

As for the usual suspects; Samsung and Xiaomi continued to experience shortages because of chip supply. This didn’t stop the brand from launching new models every month which again did not help with the shortages in the models that were already launched.

Samsung is building a new $17 billion advanced chip plant in Texas, however, chip supplies are expected to remain tight up until the second half of 2022.

The iPhone 13 series have been the most requested and offered stock on gsmexchange.com since its released with about 20 companies closing deals on our platform worth 30 million altogether on a daily basis. This has also increased the demand for iPhone 12 series in brand new as well as used.

The other highlight from Apple: Airpods, these remain the fastest moving products globally with at least 10 deals that we know of closing everyday on gsmExchange. We see no slowing down in this for 2022.

A quick word on consumer electronics: Google and Amazon are leading sellers in the smart home products along with Sony and Nintendo's in consoles. We think more trade will be taking place around these in 2022 - let us know and we can help you explore this market in the new year.

It seems a while now , but much as it seemed unlikely at the beginning of the year, we decided to run the first physical event since the pandemic at Gitex 2021. It was a true witness to the health and resilience of our industry: this largest networking area ever (pre or post pandemic) with 7000+ verified unique visitors. 

So, we are very optimistic to the year ahead, wish you all an excellent break, as you relax, and plan ahead to yet another successful year with gsmExchange.