back to article Apple to accept iPhone trade-ins at US Retail Stores

With the rumored launch date of the next iPhone fast approaching, Apple on Friday began allowing iPhone owners to trade in their old handsets at the company's Apple Retail Stores in the US. "iPhones hold great value," an Apple spokeswoman told the AFP news service. "So, Apple Retail Stores are launching a new program to assist …

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  1. Dave 52

    Condition

    What would a cosmetically good iPhone 4 32GB fetch with a useless lock button, and flaky home button?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Condition

      Probably about half what you paid for it.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Condition

      iPhones have the highest resale value of any mobile phone. Typically within the first year you will get up to 70% of its value on the open market but only if the phone is immaculate. Even after 2 years you can get up to 50% of the value.

      Keep the box and accessories and make sure you out it into a protective cover.

      I stopped buying contract phones years ago, now I buy the phone outright and take on a sim only contract which saves me a substantial amount of money. After the year is up I sell my old phone and use the proceeds to buy a new one. I have had enough of 2 year contracts, especially as my phone is on 24 hours a day and by the time the contract ends the phone is next to useless and has no resale value.

      Yes, you do have to take a hit when you buy your first phone outright, but after that you will reap the benefit.

      Unfortunately Android phones rarely hold more than 30% of the original value after a year and less after 2 years so depreciation is particularly bad with them.

      1. h3

        Re: Condition

        Yeah but if you buy a Nexus 4 at £150 at the moment it doesn't matter if it has no resale value. (An Iphone is £500).

        I always buy my phones outright as well but just get them when it is a high end model at a low end price. (<£200 anyway).

        1. Daniel B.

          Huh?

          How is buying the phone outright cheaper? I've opted for taking 12 or 18 month contracts but keeping them for far longer than the mandatory period: my last "18mo" contract lasted 3 years! It ends up being cheaper as by the time I renew, I have amassed so many carrier points that the next handset will end up costing me something like $100.

      2. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        Pirate

        Re: AC Re: Condition

        "iPhones have the highest resale value of any mobile phone...." This kind of deal is indicative of how Apple are becoming desperate to prop up the iPhone. In times past they have been happy to let the market bouy up sales but now sales are dropping, Samsung are eating into their market share and also making a device which is arguably (some would say clearly) competitive in terms of desireability. Whilst Apple used to be able to rely on fanbois to continue buying new models every release, now they are worried, and this type of lock-in deal shows how much. It also props up the secondhand value of older iPhones, which is slipping. Apple can't have their older products being perceived as only worth as much as the average Android phone, so they will want to keep the secondhand value up. All of this threatens to eat into Apple's profits. It also betrays Apple's fear of the opposition - if their next gen product really was so über-cool and good then they would have confidence in the fanbois buying it regardless, but instead it seems Apple themselves think this kind of trade-in deal will be necessary to keep fanbois onboard.

        1. SuccessCase

          Re: AC Condition

          "It also props up the secondhand value of older iPhones, which is slipping. Apple can't have their older products being perceived as only worth as much as the average Android phone, so they will want to keep the secondhand value up."

          1. The second hand value of iPhones isn't slipping - you've just made that up. See priceonomics.com for data.

          2. Apple will almost certainly buy them for less than if you simply sell you phone on priceonomics, so to claim that Apple's initiative is to "prop up the second hand value" of iPhones is a fantasy statement - we will have to wait and see how prices compare. Undoubtedly the initiative is to minimise churn from the Apple ecosystem so it continues to grow.

          3. A greater percentage of owners of Samsung devices want to move to iOS devices than iOS owners want to move to Android or Samsung - this is true even in South Korea - so it appears Apple are having no problem keeping the fanbois onboard.

          http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/08/19/apple-samsung-survey-cirp/

          Indeed in mature markets where Android has infilled the price points previously occupied by feature phones (which explains why Android per user usage figures are so dire as compared with iOS), due to these customer loyalty stats, growth of Android relative to iOS is slowing and in the US it now even appears to have reversed. iOS is growing faster than Android.

          http://www.asymco.com/2013/08/08/android-net-user-decline/

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Condition

        Don't buy a Windows Phone either then, £160 for a Nokia 920.

    3. andreas koch
      Happy

      @ Dave 52 - Re: Condition

      Nothing much.

      I think that there will be issues with the 'condition' that will keep the refund value low.

      And that, as a wild guess of mine, is because Apple has other plans for your traded in iPhone5:

      You don't think it'll come back as a 'reconditioned' or 'refurbished' or even 'second hand' iPhone5, do you? No, it will be stripped, re-flashed and provided with a 2$ plastic shell. And, Hey Presto!, we have the new, American built iPhone 5C with an unmatchable BOM.

      Now that would be an idea worthy of Apple. Selling the same phone twice to two different classes of customers, helping along the sales of the new, more expensive one with a part of the gains of the low-cost, recycled old one.

      This is taking the 'passing down' from the consumer* and monetizing it. It'd be pure genius.

      * A lot of older iPhones get passed on to the kids. Of course that only works if you have kids, and they don't mind having an 'old' iPhone. And it hasn't the incentive of saving money on the newest model for yourself.

      With this scheme the current iPhone can be passed on without having the stain of being old (it's a new iPhone5C!), it can be passed on regardless of having someone to pass it on to, You can promote that it has been 'Made in America' and you get people who might be tiring of following the correct fashion back into the fold. Gotta love it!

  2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    How about...

    any Android phone running V2.3?

    It is Friday after all and today I officially become a grumpy old man and not some youthful wannabe.

    1. andreas koch
      Pint

      @ Steve Davies 3 - Re: How about...

      Congrats!

  3. Tom 35

    ebay

    Maybe Apple hate ebay and want to control the used market.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Basically this is a way for Apple to show the TCO of Apple kit is actually lower than Android - lets say you bought an iPhone 4S and a Galaxy 3 when they were new (and both were around £400-500) - after 2 years the iPhone is still worth around half it's original purchase price. I doubt anyone would even buy the Galaxy 3 after 2 years and if so perhaps for 10-20% of original value.

    1. M Gale

      £165.09 for a Galaxy S3 on Envirofone. That's $255.81 at current exchange rates.

      To get the exact same amount for an iPhone, it needs to be a 4S with 32GB. Apparently the 64GB model will not net you any extra money.

      What was that you were saying?

      1. messele
        Thumb Down

        .

        Well you are comparing an iPhone model that is a year older so it IS retaining it's value better. You failed to mention that S3 has only 16GB right?

        Clearly an otherwise identical iPhone with 64GB of memory is worth more than one with 32GB and there is plenty of evidence to support this so it's hard to take your choice of vendor (or you) seriously.

        1. h3

          Re: .

          You can put a 64GB sdcard into an S3. (Or use a number of them if you want).

          Not the same at all. (The flash only cost $10 for Apple in the first place but it is not in their nature to let the customer take advantage of that).

        2. M Gale

          Re: .

          You failed to mention that S3 has only 16GB right?

          You're right, I did.

          However, thankyou for further solidifying my case against the "duh iPhones have better resale value" argument.

  5. john devoy

    Requiring you to buy a new iphone is reasonable for a trade in but requiring the wireless contract is crap.

    1. Alienrat

      Requiring a wireless contract may be crap, but you can't buy an iPhone in the states contract free

  6. Peter Hewitt

    UK Trade In

    So having changed the URL from US to UK I noticed there is a trade in scheme over here too. My iPhone 4S 16GB in perfection condition is apparently only worth £70, which is interesting because ASDA are paying me £180 and even envirofone are offering about £150 for it.

    Rubbish.

    1. 02X7Cm

      Re: UK Trade In

      That's sort of what you'd expect from a large retailer doing this sort of thing isn't it? They wouldn't have bothered if they didn't find it lucrative enough to put their toes in.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: UK Trade In

      "iPhone 4S 16GB in perfection condition is apparently only worth £70, which is interesting because ASDA are paying me £180 and even envirofone are offering about £150 for it."

      Ah yes, but you forget that trading it in with Apple will now be deemed as 'cool' and will provide the believers with a warm, fuzzy and legitimate feeling. Selling it to Asda just doesn't have the same cachet.

  7. imaginarynumber

    Is this a cheaper way for Apple to deal with the Unicode of Death?

    "No we won't fix the crashing bug, but you can have a discounted iOS7 phone instead"

    S'funny how this organ has stayed quiet about the whole debacle, even the guardian covered it

    1. Steve Todd
      Stop

      Erm, thats a software bug

      They are still issuing software fixes and patches for their last 4 models. It costs them far less than the trade-in.

    2. PJI

      Did you make that up?

      I know lots of people who have got iPhones or iPads. I read some of the various moan sites. I've had a 4s for two years. Never heard of this, nor, actually, any other problems of note. Still, some people can find or imagine serious problems with anything somebody else buys that differs from their own choice, or even just because they misunderstand how to use something.

      The new religion/crusade/cause: my consumer device is superior to your device, so I am superior, so you are ignorant and I am in Heaven and you are destined for Hell. Just reading a book about the Spanish Civil War - people shot, raped and tortured other people for variants of this mind set applied to belief, lack of belief, perception of class based on what they wore, where they lived and so on.

      Sad as neither of us had a hand in the design, manufacture, installation of the wonderful device. We just bought it, just as we buy milk, bread, cutlery .... No special genius or infallibility. Or perhaps you spend your time venting your spleen on the merits of this baker or that paper maker v. some other one.

  8. h3

    I think I will get an iOS 7 ipad when I reasonably can.

    (Gamepad Support - presuming the games I want are updated to support it).

    The quality of stuff like games on Android is much more variable.

    (And comparing against Nintendo / PSN / Xbox Live its actually quite a bit better).

  9. h3

    (Funny Apple being the least worst deal for old Sega games / Neo Geo / Arcade ports (especially ones that normally use a 3:4 orientation)).

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Samsung be doing something like this - no - there's a surprise.

  11. john devoy

    usa

    You really can't buy an iphone in the usa that's not on a contract? not even from an apple store?

    1. Grandpa Tom
      Thumb Up

      Re: usa

      I just bought an iPhone 5 at T-Mobile. No contract. Their trade in deal for my old iPhone 3GS (8MB) was $25.

      (unlocked). Just sold it for $75 on eBay.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Will I be able to trade my iPhone in for a nokia lumia? If so, how many will I get?

  13. Cliff

    Holds value

    'Value' is such an interesting term. Does the secondhand value vest mostly in the brand name, as a knackered out lump of phone gubbins can't have a high residual material value?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I will stick to my Lumia, thanks. I prefer the 2013 feature set and the ability for me to customise my experience for my own tastes.

    I prefer to be an individual and not a borg!

    1. M Gale

      I prefer to be an individual and not a borg!

      And you have a Microsoft phone?

      That would be some irony, right there. Or hypocrisy. Or perhaps both.

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