Apple To Lure Android Users Through iPhone Trade-In Program
Soon you will be able to trade in your old Android or BlackBerry handset for a new iPhone.
By Sadho Ram — 17 Mar 2015, 02:17 PM
Apple's trade-in program might soon expand beyond the iPhone!
According to Bloomberg, Apple plans to start accepting non-Apple devices as trade-ins as the company seeks to extend market-share gains against smartphones based on Google's Android software.
First reported by the website 9to5Mac, Apple will be rolling out the new program in the coming weeks. Currently, Apple retail staffers are reportedly undergoing training to transfer contacts and other data from the Android platform to iOS, reported Mashable.
The move would be a part of a larger effort to get more iPhone users and increase hardware sales. Previously, Apple updated its website to include a step-by-step guide on how to ditch an Android device for an iPhone.
mashable.com
Sources familiar with Apple’s plans told BuzzFeed News that the company plans to expand its iPhone Reuse and Recycling Program to include non-iOS handsets. That program, which debuted in 2013, currently offers customers up to $175 store credit toward a new iPhone for used iPhones that meet the company’s trade-in criteria.
buzzfeed.com
Apple has seen more Android users switch to iOS after the launches of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus than after the launches of the past three Apple devices, according to media reports
Apple is seeking to fuel even more iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sales after selling 74.5 million units in the last three months of 2014, up 46 percent from a year earlier. Thanks to record sales, shipments of devices based on Apple’s mobile iOS software surpassed Android in the U.S., according to Kantar Worldpanel Comtech, with 47.7 percent of the market compared with Android’s 47.6 percent.
Teresa Brewer, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment on the new trade-program, which was first reported by the website 9to5Mac. Apple had more Android “switchers” in the past quarter compared with any period in at least three years, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said on the latest earnings call.
bloomberg.com
According to the Bloomberg report, Apple's current iPhone trade-in program is a partnership with Brightstar. But it's not clear whether the new Android trade-in program will include Brightstar.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Israel Ganot, former CEO of Gazelle Inc., an online mobile trade-in company, said that while Android phones don’t hold much value, it still makes sense for Apple to accept them
“Apple can afford to pay more than the market value to get you to switch over, on the idea that you’re going to fall in love with the iOS ecosystem and stay for a long time,” Ganot said in an interview.
If Apple Stores start accepting Android-based Samsung Electronics Co. smartphones before the company’s new high-end Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge go on sale next month, “it’s going to make a lot of Galaxy S5 users think twice” about upgrading, Ganot said.
bloomberg.com