Instead of taking a page from Google’s playbook to try and boost the sales numbers of its latest high-end smartphones with increased trade-in estimates for older in-house (or competitor-made) devices, Apple has inexplicably embraced the opposite “strategy” ahead of the ever-important holiday season.
While the Cupertino-based tech giant no doubt wants the iPhone 14 series to headline as many Christmas shopping lists as possible, its efforts to remove the iPhone 13, iPhone 12, iPhone 11 Pro, XS Max and even 8 Plus of your hands in the process can only be described as… minimal.
Tis the season… to be thrifty
As one remarked eagle eyed twitter user and first reported by 9To5Mac, the official US Apple Store trade-in values for exactly a dozen different iPhone models have been revised down just when many of you were probably planning to start your hunt for traditional bargains before Black Friday.
$480 for a 12 Pro Max (pictured here) isn’t… much.
For what it’s worth, there are a few notable exceptions of devices with seemingly unchanged trade-in values and even two sample handsets. Apple is considering (a little) more value than before. But overall, these changes really don’t look good at all, especially so close to donation season:
For people unfamiliar with the general rules of Apple’s official trade-in program, the numbers above represent the amount you can get as credit for a new purchase (any purchase) or as a gift card to use anytime in the future if you are looking to dispose of one of the devices listed above in “good” condition.
These already unimpressive numbers will obviously take a big hit if the phone you want to trade in isn’t in good condition, which means it refuses to turn on (in which case you get nothing), its body is in “bad” condition (in which case you also get nothing), or the touchscreen and the cameras are “not in good condition” (in which case you’ll get some money to cut the price of an iPhone 14 or whatever).
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It almost seems like Apple doesn’t want you to upgrade from a Galaxy S22 Ultra to an iPhone 14 Pro Max.
What’s interesting (read frustrating) is that the “maximum” trade values above seem a little misleading when you actually start the trade process. For example, a The iPhone 13 Pro Max in “good condition” only appears to qualify for a $610 gift card at the time of this writing, though for what it’s worth the same ultra-premium handset may does help you cut the entire $650 off the list price of an iPhone 14 series device if you go directly to the product webpage of the latter.
Similar differences can be noticed for all the other previous generation iPhones that Apple is willing to accept as trade-ins right now, while the values of some Android smartphones made by Samsung and Google remain…downright laughable.
“Up to” $320 for one Galaxy S22 Ultra and “up to” $95 for one Pixel 6 Pro virtually guarantees that no soul will leave ship, at least using this method. Speaking of different ways to buy the iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro, 14 Pro Max, or iPhone SE 3, we highly recommend looking at what other retailers and carriers have to offer in terms of trade-in discounts before purchasing. ‘pull the trigger. . Maybe also wait two or three more weeks for a final purchase decision.
Apple Crosstech
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