Apple has been selling refurbished iPhones in its German online shop since last Saturday.
If you are not familiar with the term:
refurbished
devices are used devices that have been taken back, checked, cleaned and, if necessary, repaired by the manufacturer.
You could compare the system with the year-old cars that car dealers offer: they have only a few kilometers on them, have been checked in the workshop, look like new and even still have a guarantee.
There are a number of companies on the open market that specialize in this second-hand business.
Some offer used luxury watches, others used designer furniture, clothing or stereo systems.
And many others are dedicated to used gadgets.
Companies from department stores to furniture retailers offer trade-in programs that offer a discount on new products if you return an old one.
Apple, for example, offers a trade-in bonus of up to 465 euros for an iPhone 12 if you trade it in when buying an iPhone 13.
How much you actually get ultimately depends on the condition of the device.
And yes, of course you can get more money for a used iPhone if you offer it through a classifieds portal.
Still, millions of people choose to return their Apple gadgets to the manufacturer.
In 2020 alone, Apple re-launched more than ten million iMacs, MacBooks, iPads, iPods and iPhones taken back from its customers.
However, not all refurbished devices come to Apple in this way.
It is also often a question of returned items or devices that were sent in as defective and whose original buyers received a new device in exchange.
And ultimately, the test devices that are made available to journalists and bloggers for tests eventually end up in the refurbished store.
For an iPhone 12 with 128 gigabytes (GB) of storage, which cost 925 euros when it was launched, you pay 709 euros there.
The new price is currently 849 euros.
Why Apple is so successful with its system can be explained by the company's pricing policy - and by the trends among the competition.
For example, if you wait four weeks to buy the new Samsung Galaxy S22, you will be able to save up to 18 percent, the price search engine Idealo predicts.
And the Plus version of the predecessor model S21 could be bought 29 percent cheaper last year just three months after its introduction, calculates Guenstiger.de.
Apple only lowered the price of the iPhone 12 when the iPhone 13 went on sale – by a meager 75 euros.
Before that, you could hardly save money by waiting.
The result: Because used Android smartphones generally lose value faster than iPhones, portals such as Refurbed, Back Market and Rebuy primarily offer Apple products.
Only Samsung smartphones, also with a 36-month guarantee, can still be found on the front offer pages.
Apple itself only offers a twelve-month warranty on its used products, just like on its new ones.
However, the US company promises two special extras.
On the one hand, that the used iPhones are in a new, i.e. scratch-free outer shell.
On the other hand, that they are equipped with a new battery.
Only the electronics and the display are from the old device, the rest goes into recycling.
To stay with the example of the year-old car: That's roughly the same as getting a fuel card with fuel credit for the first year with the used car.
External links: Three tips from other media
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I Used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS Tracker to Watch My Husband's Every Move« (English, 15 minutes read)
Could this be a coincidence?
Almost at the same time as Apple announced plans to improve the security of its AirTags, the »New York Times« published an experiment on herself: the author monitored her husband – with his consent – using finder gadgets from Apple, Tile and LandAirSea.
The results are amazing.
"How to get started with Wordle: From beginner to expert in an afternoon" (English, five minutes reading time)
Has the "Wordle" trend caught you too?
If you still despair of the basics: »Android Police« has put together a guide for beginners.
Like the game itself, it is in English.
»Voldemort laugh in different languages« (Multilingual, Video, 30 seconds)
This should be done more often: This short clip shows how much the dubbing of a film affects the perception of the protagonists.
Or do you know how Voldemort laughs in Uzbekistan?
Have a good week
Matthew Kremp
