Apple has heavily promoted their trade-in
program in recent years, encouraging users to give up their old iPhone in exchange for
a discount on a new model. Over a third of Apple Store customers now
utilize this program, but its left many people wondering why Apple even wants our old iPhones. Which is what I’ll explain right now. It’s no coincidence that Apple began offering
discounts with trade-ins in 2013, when they experienced their first quarterly profit decline
in a decade.
And started aggressively promoting the trade-in
program in 2017, when they released the $1,000 iPhone X. It solved two problems the company faced:
Slowing iPhone sales due to market saturation, and users waiting longer to upgrade due to
the iPhone’s price rising year after year. Trade-ins bring down the device’s price
and allow more users to upgrade sooner. But what does Apple do with all those old
iPhones? Well, if it’s in good working condition,
they refurbish the device and resell it in emerging markets like India, Latin America
and Africa. That way, Apple can directly compete in the
used smartphone market while also selling a device twice that only had to be manufactured
once. But if the phone is in too poor a condition
to sell, Apple recycles it. They actually created a robot called Daisy
specifically for this purpose. It’s able to dissemble 200 iPhones an hour
while recovering recyclable materials that would otherwise be left in landfills.
This approach was required in order to achieve
Apple’s goal of a closed-loop supply chain. Where all new products would be manufactured
without “pulling new materials from the Earth.” Apple has yet to achieve the goal, but they
are taking steps like using 100% recycled rare earth materials in the iPhone 12. So the iPhone trade-in program benefits the
customer by making their new device more affordable, benefits Apple by boosting sales of new iPhones
plus sales of older refurbished models, and benefits the environment. By allowing devices to be used up to their
full potential before being recycled.
This is Greg with Apple Explained, thanks
for watching till the end, and I’ll see you in the next video..
