Apple May Start Accepting Android Phones As Trade-Ins

HughPickens.com writes Bloomberg reports that according to a person with knowledge of the matter, Apple plans to start accepting non-Apple devices as trade-ins as the company seeks to extend market-share gains against Android smartphones. 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. Thanks to record sales, shipments of iPhones surpassed Android in the US with 47.7 percent of the market compared with Android's 47.6 percent. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook Apple "experienced the highest Android switcher rate in any of the last three launches in the three previous years." While Android phones don't hold their value as well as iPhones, it still makes sense for Apple Stores to accept them, says Israel Ganot, former CEO of Gazelle Inc., an online mobile device trade-in company. "Apple can afford to pay more than the market value to get you to switch over," says Ganot, "on the idea that you're going to fall in love with the iOS ecosystem and stay for a long time."

Comments

Re:User replaceable battery is pointless

[SuperKendall]

How many people use phones more than three years these day?.

Yes I remember getting those cheap replacement batteries back in the day... every six months...

It's only $80 to replace an iPhone battery at an Apple Store. If you only have to do that every three years is that really so bad? That is not "expensive" by nearly any measure.

P.S. I've used all my iPhones at least two years solid and have never needed to replace a battery yet, they could have easily gone another year or more without a new one.