“Apple is beginning final preparations to launch an iPhone trade-in program in its retail stores as soon as next month, according to sources with knowledge of the initiative,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5Mac.
“This trade-in program will allow customers that own earlier versions of the iPhone, such as the iPhone 4S, to bring the phone into an Apple Store and exchange it for a new iPhone model, like the iPhone 5, at a discounted price,” Gurman reports. “On the allure of a trade-in program, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the last earnings call that he is ‘not opposed’ to such a strategy. ‘I see channels doing it, and I like the environmental aspect of it, and so that part of it really is encouraging to me,’ said.”
Gurman reports, “Third-party iPhone sales channels like Best Buy, Verizon Wireless, and AT&T have been pushing their own trade-in programs for several months.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
It’s be a great chance to bolster sales of the new phone and at the same time, recycle the old ones.
Uh-oh. If so, then it’s goodbye for places like gazelle.com that buy used iPhones. Ouch.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking too. Up until now it’s been money Apple has left on the table dealing with used phones. I notice Gazelle sending e-mails to customers letting them “lock in” old iPhone sell price before the new ones go on sale. Apple could recondition these and resell them cheaper yet.
This strategy gets customers coming back to the Apple Store and staying Apple customers too. Very smart.
Much depends on what they offer for your old iPhone.
If it’s a paltry amount, then it will cause bad feeling. If it’s a sensible figure ( approaching what an average eBay sale might fetch ) then it would be very attractive.
I think that Apple should take the second route and take a small hit on a trade-in, effectively offering a modest discount for loyal customers who are upgrading. It’s good business sense to reward loyalty and the old iPhones can be sold to new customers in the hope that they in turn will become loyal customers.
This is really going to be hard for iPhone businesses. I personally own a buyback site and its not going to be easy. You cant compete with Apple. It just wont work.
Gazelle comes to mind as the biggest company, and i’m sure they will be “feeling it” when Apple really markets hard towards this. All we can hope is that Apple wont take all of the small businesses income.
Apple also is making more colors I hear? This also takes away business from iPhone mod people that do it for a living.
What is next? unbreakable glass so that iPhone glass repair shops go out of business also?
Im not sure I like Tim Cook and his decisions as a CEO…
(source: http://vaultfeed.com/apple-to-offer-in-store-trade-in-will-this-give-deviceflip-and-gazelle-competition/ )