Apple Starts iPhone Trade-in Program in Stores

Apple plans to start an iPhone trade-in program this month, which is expected to aim at convincing customers to upgrade to the iPhone 5 and turn in older models. As the rumor suggested, the Fruit Company sealed a deal with Brightstar Corp, a mobile-phone distributor, in order to run the exchange program.

Sources, who wish to remain unknown because Apple has not publicly announced the plan, offered multiple details regarding the trade-in service.

In what concerns Brightstar, the company also handles trade-in plans for AT&T and T-Mobile carriers, as well as other carriers and device makers. Now, the trade-in program in alliance with Apple aims to refurbished iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

Through the trade-in service, the Cupertino-based company will offer money for older smartphones in order to persuade customers to upgrade to the latest model available, which is the iPhone 5.

According to the Gazelle’s CEO, Israel Ganot, “the overall size of the market is increasingly rapidly”. Gazelle is a famous mobile device trade-in company, which operates in the online field. On the other hand, Apple’s spokesman and Brightstar’s spokesman declined to offer any comment in this respect.

In what concerns AT&T’s trade-in plan, the company is offering as much as $200 for working iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. The offer will give customers the possibility to purchase an entry-level iPhone 5 for no money down. Ganot also suggests that more than 20 percent of US customers will buy a smartphone this year, and they will make use of a trade-in program. On the same structure, the percent of customers using a trade-in program to buy an upgraded device was around 11 percent in 2011.

Now, after the ITC’s decision of banning older Apple devices in US, Samsung has become the leader smartphone brand in US. As Apple’s growth has slowed down in the recent quarters, the company has decided to turn its attention to refurbished iPhone market.

Related to refurbished phones, trade-in programs are used to support sales of new hardware in mature markets such as the US. The American market already is populated by smartphone owners.

According to Apple’s plan, used iPhone collected in the US will be resold in emerging markets where Apple’s impact is lower, and the demand for smartphones is greater. In the same time, the same source suggested the fact that reselling older iPhone will not interfere with the iPhone 5 demand.

The new trade-in program with Brightstar will be available only at Apple’s retail outlets. In the same time, the program will let customers receive payments instantly and avoid the trouble of sending away their older gadgets.