iPhone 6 in Apple Store – Reuters
In a move to boost iPhone sales, Apple will soon introduce a new recycling and trade-in program that will accept non-Apple smartphones, notably including Android and BlackBerry devices, in exchange for gift cards to be used toward the purchase of new iPhones. In continuing to court Android switchers, Apple will use a similar system to the one it uses to repurchase iPhones, whereby Apple Retail Store employees determine trade-in values for devices by considering their cosmetic and functional condition, according to multiple sources…
The new program will begin in the coming weeks, following extensive training programs for retail store employees that will begin later this week. Apple employees will be able to transfer address book contacts from the rival smartphones to the iPhones, but other data will have to be moved by customers. Apple originally launched the iPhone Reuse and Recycle trade-in program in mid-2013 to encourage upgrades from older iPhone models to the iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, and the iPhone 5c.
Over the past couple of years, Apple has offered upgrade events to boost sales and rapidly expanded the program from the United States to Canada, Europe, and Australia. The results have been marked upticks in iPhone sales, including multiple record-breaking quarters. Last summer, Apple rolled out a version of the program centered around the iPad, which is not available in all countries. However, the Android device trade-in program will be available in multiple countries, including the United States and United Kingdom.
While Apple’s iPhone trade-in program is known for its consistency and convenience, the pricing is typically not up to par with some of Apple’s competitors in the smartphone trade-in space. Amazon’s trade-in program provides instant online quotes and a free shipping label for phone trade-ins, covering a wide variety of different smartphones and other electronics; Gazelle also offers aggressive trade-in prices for cell phones. Apple does tweak its algorithm with partner BrightStar for iPhone trade-in prices, however, so it is likely that rival smartphone prices will be adjusted over time.
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i just laughed out loud in my office.
Lemme guess, you laughed out loud because you wouldn’t dream of parting with your ten year old Crackberry? or perhaps it’s because your membership at Radio Shack entitles you to a much better trade-in deal? …
Apple is training employees to use Android to transfers customers’ contact over via SIM I’m sure. Interesting. Good move on Apple’s part reducing the barrier of entry to their devices and ecosystem. Samsung should be worried about this.
considering all the people i have heard of who got that FBI trojan and found out their entire phone book got deleted, they should switch to iphohes. i know this one guy in ohio that had to erase and start up his android phone 3 times because of those trojans.
i have seen android people go on Facebook multiple times and ask people that their phone got hacked and please resend all their telephone numbers to them.
And why would they need to do that? All contacts are backed up in Google Contacts and you can go back and recover your contacts with as much granularity as 10 minutes in the past!
In fact the first link in a quick Google search is https://support.google.com/mail/answer/1069522?hl=en
@NoWay Jose, you’d be surprised how many people DON’T have their contacts sync’d with the cloud, both for iPhone AND Android phones. Plenty of people don’t have Find my iPhone turned on either, and I’m sure it’s the same for Android with their equivalent. Some people are stupid. I see it happen plenty of times on social media.
Because the Fappening showed how secure the iCloud is… HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHA
@nsxrebel You would have to actually go out of your way to prevent the contacts from being backed up. When you get a new phone, you use (or create) a Google account. And when you add contacts, in the Contacts app, it automatically syncs to Google. To prevent that you would have to do one or more of
1. Don’t sign up for Gmail account at all (in which case you won’t get access to the PlayStore)
2. Turn off Syncing (It’s on by default)
3. Add contacts to SIM instead of Google.
I’m sure the tinfoil crowd or phones sold without Google Services (China/Amazon) will do this. But the vast majority of users will actually just use the default and the default will back up all Contacts.
I have weighed my options for my first smartphone and drum rolls it isn’t Apple. Far too simplistic for me. Apple’s phones are aimed and geared towards computer illiterate, people who become frustrated with many features and functions as well as children, tweens and teens and elderly.
Until they can make one that has function and features to my liking there is no way I want an iphone. Which is why I want an Android device, it has close to what I want in an phone operating system. Double goes for a tablet for me.
Thanks for sharing what Samsung paid you to say. Very helpful to everyone.
He or she never even mentioned Samsung.
You need to grow up.
Wait, Samsung is synonymous to android? WoW?
i disagree. I’ve had Nextel, treos, sidekicks, blackberry, androids smartphones and now my iPhone. Apple is geared towards people who are tired of wasting their time and money and shit just doesn’t WORK!. all i’ve ever wanted was for my phone to just function with a good battery life, period. i don’t care about all these unnecessary widgets, customizations and applications that i’m not going to use. its not that challenging to open the folder or pull down the search option and type in what i need to appear. i want to get my work done, text, make calls, send emails, write notes, type papers, get directions, order food, etc. i loved my blackberry because it worked. limited functionality, but it worked and now my iphone does everything my blackberry did and more. aside from maybe Google Maps there isn’t anything on an Android phone that functions better than an Iphone app. Android OS is constantly crashing, freezing,constantly needing to force close apps, and delete apps to redownload them. if simplistic means my phone will work i’ll take simplistic and run with it! the Iphone and apple products are an investment. an android is a learning experience.
I said they are aimed and geared towards. Apple phones and or accessories are quite more expensive The current iOS 8 is unstable hence the many reboots they are having multiple reboots.
This goes to eyamponi – I realize it’s possible that you’re not in the U.S., but the top tier Android phones are typically just as expensive as the iPhone and the accessories seem about the same to me (I’ve recently moved from a Note II to the iPhone 6). Regarding iOS 8 instability, can’t say that I’ve experienced that, although that’s not to say it couldn’t be an issue for others.
I am facing a frustration of core apps not working. As a single parent of three I could care less about customizing, I tried to use hangouts this morning when my children were fighting at home and had no keyboard. I need the core apps to work all the time. No excuses.
well then maybe this should be corrected to state
“Android phones are aimed and geared towards computer illiterate, people who become frustrated with many features and functions as well as children, tweens and teens and elderly.”
isn’t that statement more accurate?
No that statement is dead wrong, bickering out of school isn’t impressive. stating facts is.
I understand what eyamponi is saying, and its not anti-Apple. I think it goes right along with people who like to build their own PCs from scratch. And you could never do that with Macs. You certainly can’t root your iPhone, whereas, Android phones are easy to root. But let me say this, I have a PhD in Electrical Engineering. I wrote software for high performance computing, machine vision, and scientific visualization. I know the difference between SSE and NEON FPU instruction sets. I’ve programs Macs, PCs, and SOC modules. And having done all of that, I’m happy to say I’m over it. And I don’t need a cell phone that requires me to root it to feel like a man. I like my iPhone 6 because I want it to be easy and friendly to use. I already have a job, my cell phone shouldn’t be it.
iPhones are easy to jailbreak (root) in fact I had jailbroken apps on my original iPhone before any Android device shipped. Before the AppStore.
I don’t need to jailbreak anymore though, there is enough functionality built in.
Iphone will never reach the lofty 97% of malware that Android achieved*. That’s a key “function” and “feature” of Android that Apple just can’t match, so iphone must be geared to the computer “illiterate” who just aren;t able to work around all that malware like he can. *http://fortune.com/2013/04/14/android-gets-97-of-malware-apple-ios-58-of-enterprise/
You’d be surprised how computer illiterate people are, no matter what their choice of OS is. Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, BB. I think the only real exception to that would be Linux users. I know my way around Windows and Macs, yet I choose Mac/iOS hands down. I’ll admit I’ve never touched a Linux machine, never had the need I guess.
So saying Android is made for computer literate people is false. Bottom line, most people are dumb as rocks when it comes to computers/electronics.
Where did you get your Computer Science major?
Oh, I see…
I find it offensive that Android users always assume that iPhone users are generally computer illiterate or old. I have used computers since I was a kid and I am now in my mid-twenties, so I’d rule out the old as well as tween and teen argument. I use both Mac and Windows operating systems in both my personal and work life so that rules that one out too. And the funny thing is I now many people exactly the same as myself who enjoy the ease of use and simplicity that iOS offers. I avoid Android because I DON’T want the millions of “features and functions” that complicate what I believe should be a very intuitive experience. I didn’t get that with Android. I kind of got that with Blackberry OS7 but again I find myself back with iOS each and every time. Everyone is going to have their preferences but stop generalising what is a huge and varied demographic of users.
Getting a little paniced are we?
HA HA HA Windows Phone Yo
I’ve already tried iPhone 5s and iPhone 6. I actually kept the iPhone 5s longer (one month) vs iPhone 6 (one week). The problems with the iPhone 6 drove me insane and I started missing Android. The funny thing is that you forget all the issues after a period of time but when you try it out again you remember why you love Android.
Sad part is that I might do it again but the S6 Edge may change my mind.
If this comes to Australia, i’ll totally trade in my lumia 930. Kind of tired of the apps.
Unless you have a new S6/Edge, Note 4/ Edge, or One M9, I highly doubt you’re gonna get much for your android phone.
$20 gift certificates anyone? lol
I’ve switched from Android Note3 to iphone where I found a huge different in stability and ease of use of iOS devices, while the unnecessary silly features on android that i haven’t used it except at the time of purchase are not a deal for me in amazing design and other features of iOS.
However, my old phone was thrown away ,,, I will manage to switch by cards for the iPhone 6S. LOL
Apple is finally taking on Android with in-store programs to teach employees about how to transfer data from Android to iPhone. I guess there will be utilities for employees to quickly take backups of Android phones, and restore on iOS.
Hey Apple! Please release such tool / functionality for public as well.
You’re slightly mistaken. They are training staff to copy across contacts from Android to iOS (which is not that difficult to do now) but any additional data the customer will need to backup first as Apple staff will not do that for you.
The timing is good. I’ve been on Android for years and my phone is old (Nexus 4) so time to upgrade. I’ve decided to give the iPhone a shot for a couple of years and this trade in may be a nice little kiss to get me to do it now rather than wait.
nice
Offer me a better phone first. My 1 year old GalaxyS5 records in 4k generating far sharper video than I’ve seen on friends’ iphone6’s and 6+’s, it can handle being submerged in water, I can remove the back and add extra SD memory, I can remove the SD card for ease of transfer of large files, I can swap out an extra battery while travelling, I can charge it by induction, and best of all, it runs Android.
You get a lousy $35 discount…yay!
one word: ephialtes
http://i0.wp.com/www.thejillofalltradesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/ephialtes.gif
When is this program set to launch?