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Why Does Apple Want Your Old iPhone?

0 votes
by (120 points)
I understand that Apple has a trade-in program which intrigues you. There is a discernable reason as to why Apple targets their customers’ old iPhones once new models are introduced.

1 Answer

0 votes
by (260 points)
There are a lot of advantages to Apple's trade-in program indeed. First of all, it deals with the problem of iPhone sale and market saturation by making new devices cheaper thereby convincing users to upgrade sooner than they should. Second, for iPhones which are still in restorable condition, Apple replaces those, and sells them in developing markets and this way, it provides business in the pre-owned smartphones market providing a gadget that Only once needed to be made. Finally, for those phones which are not even sellable, there is Apple’s special robot Daisy which disassembles the phones for waste the companies goal of a closed loop supply chain. This option also helps in recovering the recyclable material hence reducing the environmental harm.
by (100 points)
It basically keeps Apple in control of their own markets, take someones old phone out of the market location (say USA or EU), they upgrade and if that phone is exchanged instead of being handed down to a family member or sold 2nd hand then that person would also need buy a new product.
by (100 points)
It also has the fun side-effect of reducing the number of used models on the market, thus driving up price and thus leading more people to instead buy new from Apple.
by (100 points)
You forgot to mention how opposed apple is to the 3rd party repair. It is another reason for trade-ins, it prevents spare parts ending up in the hands of repair shops.
by (100 points)
Oh cool. I guess that it was because they wanna see what you do with it and how it held up over the years to use that info for future devices
by (100 points)
Its funny considering that Apple was under fire before for intentionally making the next recent update to be more battery consuming for the older iPhone models like the 6 or 6S for example
by (100 points)
How much is APPLE IPHONE 12 WITH IN MINT CONDITION?
by (100 points)
The reason is simple - apple buys your old iPhones coz western people upgrade to new iPhones compared to developing regions. I’m in India for example, and here the new iPhones are really expensive. So we usually buy pre used old iPhones that aren’t cheap but are cheaper than the new models.
by (100 points)
I bet they can also take the costs of the program as a loss on their taxes.  So it’s just a no brainer for them.
by (100 points)
Simple answer: Apple wants your old phones as parts to put into new phones and to put old phones in the refurbished market

Thank you for the likes!
by (100 points)
i find it more likely that one of the reasons is that it improves their sales by limiting the amount of old iphones on the market : as people won't be able to find as much iphones on the used market, their only choices to get one is to either buy a refurbished one or a brand new one at full price, both of which totally benefit apple.

the same way supermarkets and big chains such as amazon prefer to destroy a large part of their unsold products rather than putting them on sale.
by (100 points)
With everything going on with the right to repair controversy. Maybe Apple wants to keep and recycle the old phone themselves to keep the used parts out of the hands of consumers and non-authorized repair shops?
by (100 points)
The Apple dilemma:

1. iPhones last long so people want to switch to iPhone.
2. iPhones last long so iPhone users don't want to switch to a newer iPhone.
by (100 points)
I paid dearly for my iPhone 8 on release and quickly found out it wasn’t much better than the 7 and was quickly overshadowed by the X. Because of this, I told myself I’d hold onto it until it was absolutely necessary to replace. I’ve gone 4 years now with a battery swap at 2.5 and it was sort of reborn when the iPhone SE2 came out. This gave the market more cases for me to feed off of.
by (100 points)
Build once sell twice. This company is a Monster
by (100 points)
Actual answer: this brings Apple more money. Anything positive that comes after it, regardless of how insignificant it is, is to be promoted as the supposed main goal.
by (100 points)
The thing is: there is a paradigm of "oh no my iPhone 11 broke, good thing I have my trusty iPhone 6S that'll carry me until the prices fall with the next release cycle". Apple may not want that
by (100 points)
Apple be like ‘buy the new iPhone for just $1000’, you buy the phone walk out the store and walk straight back in, Apple: ‘we will buy that phone from you for $5’
by (100 points)
What abt  planned obsolescence  shame on big tech firms like Apple for making our phones slower and battery poorer deliberately
by (100 points)
cause they want free money
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