iPhone owners who want to trade in their smartphones at an Apple retail center for a newer model can now only receive up to $225. Previously, Apple pegged the trade-in value for older models of its flagship smartphone at $270.
The $45 reduced value for iPhone trade-ins was first reported by iPhone in Canada, which spotted the photo on the website of Apple's Reuse and Recycle program. Apple first introduced the buyback program in the United States in 2011 as a way to provide an incentive for owners of older-generation iPhones to trade in their devices, which can then be dismantled and harvested for older components that are still working. Apple partnered with a third-party company called PowerON, which manages the reuse and recycle program, and has expanded the program to customers in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
The new move provides a marked contrast against Apple's earlier efforts to attract customers to trade in their older iPhones for reusing or recycling. In August 2012, Apple offered as much as $345 for 64GB variants of its then top-of-the-line iPhone 4S. Earlier this year, Apple also offered a $199 incentive for iPhone 4S owners to upgrade to iPhone 5s or 5c and $99 to iPhone 4 owners.
The trade-in value of the iPhone is expected to fluctuate as prices of existing iPhones depreciate and as new product cycles are set to begin.
No offer has yet been made for customers who would like to trade in their iPhone 5s models, but that is expected to change as Apple is getting ready to release the all-new iPhone 6 later this year. And as fans anticipate Apple's latest iteration of its flagship smartphone, various reports, leaks and mockups have cropped up from well-informed analysts and supply-chain sources.
The latest in a string of rumors that normally precede the launch of a new Apple product consists of photos leaked by Japanese website Nikkei that show the new iPhone 6, which is also rumored to come in a 4.7-inch variant and a 5.5-inch phablet model, will have a curved glass display. The curve will not be as pronounced as many people would like them to be, but the photos show a subtle curve to seamlessly connect the glass with the aluminum shell.
Nikkei also reports that the new iPhone will have a carved glowing Apple logo on the back, similar to the logo found on the back of a MacBook.
Earlier reports citing Taiwanese supply chain sources also say Foxconn and Pegatron, two of Apple's major suppliers, are getting ready to start mass production of the iPhone 6 this month and are, in fact, hiring more than a hundred thousand new workers to beef up its workforce for the upcoming runs.
