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 …
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.
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.
"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.
"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/
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!
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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