Assurant’s Brandon Johnson, SVP, Global Supply Chain, and Karen McElaney, VP, Asset Value Recovery, sat down with Counterpoint during Mobile Disrupt 2025 to discuss the secondary smartphone market, along with the company’s business developments and plans for 2025. With many large businesses having to re-evaluate business plans following the US government announcing tariffs early this year, those in the secondary technology space are not immune. Assurant outlines its perspective from front-end consumer impacts to back-end efficiencies to eliminate impact on price, supply and labour shortages resulting from the tariffs. This conversation also covers general secondary smartphone trends and other consumer device segments that are seeing growth in the secondary device market.

The Interview




Key Takeaways from the Discussion:

Building a Resilient, Tech-driven Supply Chain

• Tariffs caused some disruption in the secondary device space in H1 2025, and Assurant is adapting its global supply chain to tackle volatility in tariffs, materials, and logistics.

• By integrating automation, AI, and smarter logistics, the company is creating a flexible device lifecycle framework that can scale with industry disruptions and consumer demand.

Strategic Partnership with Plug

• In 2025, Assurant announced a partnership with Plug, a direct-to-consumer marketplace for certified pre-owned (CPO) devices.

• This collaboration expands inventory, improves consumer trust with warranties and testing, and ensures more competitive pricing while also reinforcing device circularity by extending product lifespans and reducing e-waste.

Making Circularity the Standard

• Through its trade-in and upgrade reports, Assurant emphasizes that secondary markets are central to the modern device value chain.

• By connecting carriers, suppliers, and consumers, Assurant is working to normalize reuse and refurbishment as the default industry model.

Analyst Take

• The demand for secondary smartphones is still increasing, and with macroeconomic impacts on day-to-day spending, consumers will still look for a way to cut costs and that is where the secondary smartphone market is outpacing the new device sales growth.

• Companies like Assurant have taken proactive measures, much like new smartphone OEMs, to protect against the potential impacts of the tariffs in H2 2025.

• The secondary device market has always been more volatile and have measures and strategies to rebound from these hurdles to continue YoY growth.