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India Turns Down Apple's Request to Sell Used iPhones
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Silly that India would essentially say "no" to millions in potential tax revenue. Am I reading between the lines correctly here that this is primarily due to these devices being used or refurbed? What, was India's officials offended by Apple's plans?
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Do we know if Apple is already doing this to pad sales figs? Searched but couldn't come up with anything online.
I think it maybe related to all these ewastes...
Problems with ewasted already happened in China where people import all these toxic electronic components and then trying to refurbish them to sell at low price. This brings boat loads of environmental problems.
When India open the door to these refurbished phone, they could potentially open to lots of problem where people bring all these electronic wastes. Lots of environmental problems. I think India is smart to ban import f all used electronic stuff.
Apparently India does not care about potential millions of sales tax dollars. When GDP is in trillions per year. Several million is pocket change. Do you really care about a dollar when you have million dollars?
And Apple combine iPhone, iPad, Mac sales. We have no way to know if Apple includes refurbished products into its sales figure. As far as I know, Apple sells refurbished iPad, iPod, Mac.
Except Apple does a TON of engineering design and some assembly in the US. This by itself probably equates to more contribution to the economy than needing to build 30% of good there.
I side with the Indians...
India's population is almost within the population range Canada+Mexico+USA+All of Europe (Believe it or not).
So its worth to build a factory dedicated to them.
But this brings the question of, if India does not import phones, how can you get an iPhone in India?
India's population is almost within the population range Canada+Mexico+USA+All of Europe (Believe it or not).
So its worth to build a factory dedicated to them.
But this brings the question of, if India does not import phones, how can you get an iPhone in India?
Well, Not really. Although I appreciate Apple's plans of opening official Apple Stores in India, I'm against them selling used (or refurbished, as they intend to call so) in India. India's a really different marketplace unlike the West; Here, People really pay a premium price for the latest iPhone which here starts at around $900 going up all the way to the upwards of $1200, apart from their monthly phone bills , for which people in the West can easily get a decent-specced Mac. There are no contract-phones available here.
The iPhone, here, is seen as a symbol of Quality and Status. Given its price relative to the average Indian household salary, Not all but the Riches can afford it. Bringing on refurbished iPhones would, unsurprisingly, increase the sales volume of Apple, but at the same time would demolish its own image. These refurbished iPhones which are of approx $300 each, would never last as long as the new ones do, Spoiling People's image about the iPhone's quality; Secondly, The iPhone which is seen as a Symbol of Status here, would no more be seen in the same way.
They may be successful in selling three refurbished $300 iPhones, but they would lose out a customer ready to pay $1200 for as the iPhone would have become so common that it would have lost its shiny and sweet place as a Status Symbol(for which most of the people buy them here).
All these were in Apple's point of view; Now, coming to the Government's point of view, E-Waste Disposal is a big problem faced by all the countries, We just can't allow Apple coming here and dumping their wastes over here indirectly through refurbished iPhones which for sure would not last as long.
No doubt iPhones would be popular, if only the rich to middle class are used to carry iPhones as a "status symbol" then I'm certain even the poorest would like to try and buy one..
But if their annual wage is less than 1500£ or less, then spending 600£ or so would be crazy, and if they still do it might actually answer to their reason of being poor.
Unfortunately Apple is never going to be able to target this crowd and there are hundreds of millions of these folks in India, other than stealing or finding a lost iPhone, I still think they'd benefit more from a job than a phone. For now Samsung and other Chinese smartphones are their best bets to buy well under 100£ and I can never see Apple competing that.
As I said previously, they simply need to target the comparatively wealthier folks living in tier 1 and 2 cities of India. As even a tiny percentage would still be in millions of people, and billions of profit.
Look at nutty Apple, they're trying to dump their old goods onto a developing country. What a disgrace, how offensive.
Apple, how about you offer refurbished goods on your website at a much lower price? That will get your refurbished goods moving and out of your hands and into new owners.
#CorporationsTakeNoteDevelopingCountriesAreNotDumpingGroundsForYourTrash
Apple, how about you offer refurbished goods on your website at a much lower price? That will get your refurbished goods moving and out of your hands and into new owners.
#CorporationsTakeNoteDevelopingCountriesAreNotDumpingGroundsForYourTrash
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Tim Cook is a very intelligent man. Yet the years of living and working with stratospheric wealth, in the richest state within the USA, has clouded his ability to grasp the facts on a global scale. Apple's narcissistic culture is not helping.
There are re-sellers. Or people just bring them from the US. Similar to how the Chinese line up for the triads to pick up iphones to sell back in Mainland china.
You can pretty much import anything via freight if you do your due diligence. Expensive though.
I guess all India wanted was for Tim Cook to learn how to play cricket. 
It's clear to me India wants its growth to be methodical and that it doesn't want to be the world's dumping ground for first world hand-me-downs.
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Refurbs are hardly hand me down 2nd and is just part of Apple's retail arrangement as for in the US, Australia and elsewhere.
If they were that good, they wouldn't need to be refurbished in the first place would they. Apple products do not last for years. Why do you think they only offer 1 year Warranty on any product?
It's about time countries started to stand up to Apple. Making them comply to there laws. It's just funny that two of the world most populus countries have both given Apple the finger in recent weeks.
Refurbs is what Apple does with its standard return policy. All those people who buy, open the box, fiddle, show-off on YouTube/Facebook and then return for a refund. Apple takes a hit by paying for the refurbishment and sell them at a discount. Quite a beneficial arrangement and a smart way to buy for us consumers for essentially the same thing.
You will find many running India make a lot more money than TC and his team will ever dream to do so....Apple treasure chest means very little in these international affairs. If anything it makes the leaders of these countries more greedy and make Apple jump higher. Apple has a major issue to keep its margins high.....they are running out of countries with cheap labour , and people running these countries known it well. Advantage to the ones with the labour resource.
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'Refurbished' is an euphemism for 'second hand', 'hand me down', 'used good' etc.
hand-me-down (hănd′mē-doun′)
adj.
1. Handed down to one person after being used and discarded by another.
2. Of inferior quality; shabby.
n.
Something, such as an article of clothing, that is passed on from one person to another.
Stop narrowly quoting from a dictionary and try to understand the real world use of the word and Apple's retail arrangements. Or it's not worth discussing the issue with you.
That wasn't a narrow definition, it is the definition. Apple uses all kinds of euphemisms in the sale of its products.
You are going off topic and have no idea of Apple's operation. End of the line. <plonk>
Build an iPhone factory. Employ some locals and take part in the economy.
In the UK we have a market for smartphones. That market relies on our infrastructure, roads, rail, shipping, airports, employment rights, consumer right, etc,etc.
Apple exploit our infrastructure to sell their goods but then divert all of the profits through Ireland. This means that they DO NOT contribute to our economy in a way that they should.
My point is that India seem to be making sure that if Apple want to use their market, their infrastructure, then they can darned well contribute in proportion to their earnings.
Well done them.
In the UK we have a market for smartphones. That market relies on our infrastructure, roads, rail, shipping, airports, employment rights, consumer right, etc,etc.
Apple exploit our infrastructure to sell their goods but then divert all of the profits through Ireland. This means that they DO NOT contribute to our economy in a way that they should.
My point is that India seem to be making sure that if Apple want to use their market, their infrastructure, then they can darned well contribute in proportion to their earnings.
Well done them.