The terminology you use may vary, but the thing we are talking about is the same. Renewed, refurbished, pre-owned, these are smartphones that aren’t new (but they also aren’t the traditional as in ‘second hand’ or ‘used’ phones), but with an assurance that anything that needed to be has been fixed afresh, tend to deliver a lot more value and that climb up the aspirational ladder for many buyers. India’s premium renewed smartphone platform ControlZ has launched its first experience store in Gurugram, in a marked step away from the online-first and e-commerce primed approach that renewed smartphones mostly leaned on. Circling back to the fresh fixes that I touched upon earlier, ControlZ confirms every smartphone they sell undergoes more than 311 stringent quality checks and OEM-grade replacements for displays, cameras, and components. A lot of this is difficult to showcase in an online store, and the physical store should help overcome those challenges for the buyer and the seller.
I asked Yug Bhatia, Founder and CEO of ControlZ, why now and how it makes things easier for consumers, and he insists this is the right time to bring that experience offline. “Consumers today care about both value and sustainability, but they also want trust. Our new store makes it easy: people can walk in, see and feel the quality for themselves, and leave with a device that’s like new—100% battery health, 18 months warranty, and zero compromise. It’s about giving people the confidence to choose renewed without a second thought,” he says.
The other point of discussion revolved around consumer preferences, and how that underlines the renewed smartphone market outlook. Bhatia insists India’s renewed smartphone market is just beginning to take shape. “We believe it’s going to grow rapidly in the year ahead. Consumers are moving away from second-hand bargains and toward renewed devices that deliver quality, reliability, and peace of mind. That shift is setting new standards for the entire industry,” he says. For Bhatia, ControlZ is never about following this change, but leading it by redefining what renewed means for buyers in India. Competition in this space is increasing, and it’ll be interesting to see in a few months time, how this store has worked out for ControlZ in terms of traction.
KEYNOTE MOMENTS
As it is every year, Apple’s hardware keynote in 2025 too was extensive. A lot to unpack, which I did on Hindustan Times in the hours after. There’s still some unpacking to do in our weekly conversation. I’ve been speaking with analysts about their take on the announcements Apple made, as they try to make sense of it all. Are you ready?
- Must start with the iPhone Air, the most exciting new product announced. This is 5.6mm thick (the thinnest iPhone ever), with a 6.5-inch ProMotion display and the same A19 Pro chip that also powers the iPhone 17 Pro phones. It is a sign of the times, as Apple has to compete with the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy 25 Edge, which is 5.8mm thick. What you must ask are a series of questions. Is the iPhone Air a precursor to a foldable iPhone that’s expected next year? Is the iPhone Air a first look at the future of iPhones and not just as a separate ‘Air’ line? Is the Fusion Camera indeed a viable alternative to the versatility of a three-camera system that flagship phones have?
- “The iPhone 17 Air delivers notable design innovation, likely driving upgrades from loyalists of older models, including iPhone 12 through 15, while the iPhone 17 Pro lineup—with its durable, performance-focused design, enhanced battery, and advanced camera capabilities—will appeal to power users and digital natives alike. The emphasis on improved durability, including drop and scratch resistance, aligns with the growing consumer demand for longer-lasting devices,” summarises Prabhu Ram, Vice President – Industry Research Group, at CyberMedia Research (CMR).
- Changes on the iPhone 17 Pro line begin with the design, including a new unibody architecture, the switch to a proprietary aluminium material, the use of a Ceramic Shield instead of glass at the back to make it more scratch resistant, and of course, the brightest colour we’ve ever seen on a Pro series iPhone till now. Cosmic Orange, as it is called, will likely be the best-seller for Apple at least in initial months, because it is a step away from the traditionally serious, darker colour shades that the iPhone Pro line has always delivered. That continues to the cameras, including longer optical zoom and a larger primary sensor.
- The standard iPhone 17 gets a larger 6.3-inch screen size (instead of 6.1-inch) while adding an adaptive refresh rate ProMotion tech and new camera hardware including versatile selfie orientation. This runs the A19 chip, a 3-nanometer architecture chip, with a promise of better battery stamina, up to 20% faster than an iPhone 16, and a faster neural engine for artificial intelligence (AI) processing. Prices of the iPhone 17 start ₹82,900 with 256GB being the minimum storage spec. The iPhone 16 prices at launch, ₹79,900 onwards.
- “On the pricing front Apple has this time retained the price points except in few indicating they are expecting a flattish growth globally. Despite rupee weakening against dollar by around 5% in 2025 over 2024 they haven’t made major price jumps in India,” notes Faisal Kawoosa, Chief Analyst and co-founder of Techarc.
- Wearables have really stepped up in terms of capabilities. The third generation AirPods Pro true wireless earbuds, features a custom advanced computational audio and custom audio drivers. Apple says the noise cancellation is optimised to be four times more effective than a previous generation, and that transparency mode is now marked by more human-like ambient voices filtering through to the ear. In our quick experience after the keynote, they aren’t wrong with their claims, with both functionalities significantly better than an earlier generation.
- The Apple Watch 11 gets improved cellular coverage underlined by improved hardware, heart health tracking including hypertension detection, and a up to 24 hours battery life. Alongside, the Apple Watch SE, the entry point to Apple’s Watch portfolio, gets new functionality such as sleep apnea and sleep score data, as well as 18-hour battery life with addition of fast charging.
Our extensive coverage of the keynote…
PASSAGE OF TIME
Finally, Instagram for iPad. A 15-year wait (another thing the world’s got before GTA VI) leads us to an app that isn’t simply a stretched version of the iPhone app, so much so that this specific tablet interface will soon find space in the Instagram app for Android tablets too. “When designing Instagram for iPad, we wanted to take advantage of the bigger screen to give people more features with fewer taps, while keeping it simple,” the official statement says. Do try this out, for the iPad is often called the ultimate ‘media consumption device’ and Instagram Reels are prime content consumption in this era, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
VISION
In a column recently (we didn’t get a chance to talk about this), write about the warning signs that India’s telecom market is teetering on the edge of becoming a duopoly dominated by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, as Vodafone Idea (Vi) struggles to survive. There is an urgent need to preserve Vodafone Idea (Vi) as a significant telecom player in India. Losing Vi would erode competition—hurt price affordability, service quality, and innovation for billions of mobile users. We have seen it at multiple points in time in the past year — monthly telecom bills and recharge prices have gone up, popular affordable plans have been removed by Airtel and Jio, whilst no discernible real-world network quality improvements (do tell me if your calls no longer drop or you have full network coverage in your apartment elevator or office basement parking).
I make the argument that supporting Vi isn’t about corporate protectionism but a consumer welfare imperative, in the sense that diminished consumer choice, higher prices, and slowed technological advancement may be the result of a duopoly. There is a need for a clear policy intervention, if at all it is possible—like easing spectrum payment terms, restructuring debt, or other support—to help Vi stabilise and potentially regain competitiveness. Moreover, absence of incentives for new players to enter the market poses a thoughtful question — if we can’t nurture the next ‘Jio,’ alongside the current Jio, how will India stay competitive with upcoming technologies like 6G?
KNOW
Google will not have to sell its Chrome browser business, to address the search monopoly issue, the judge in the antitrust case has ruled. That should, for starters, put an end to all sorts of naivety where certain AI bros thought they could buy out Chrome from Google, two institutions in their own right. The judge has ruled that Google can continue to pay partners for preloading or placement of its Search or AI products, but the tech giants must share some search information with rivals and bar it from putting together any exclusive deals to distribute its Search or AI assistant products in ways that might cut off distribution for rivals. Google does contend that this guideline to share some data with rivals will impact user data privacy, and that they are looking closely at this. Big picture — this may well be the biggest signal that regulators and courts may not be as willing to break up tech giants, as many expected.
OpenAI is adding a layer of parental controls to ChatGPT, which would give parents the option to link their personal ChatGPT account with the accounts of their teenage children. From then on, parents will be able to decide how ChatGPT responds to queries by their kids, as well as disable select features, including memory and chat history. Building on the emotional support aspect that OpenAI has detailed recently, the chatbot will generate automated alerts when it detects a teen in conversation, with “signs of acute distress”.
