News Government foils Apple's plan to dump used iPhones in India

[sharktale1212]

As for his visit, its was as dud as was the visit from Zuckerberg.

On the pre-owned side, one can see both sides of the argument. While one can focus on the fact that Tim Cook admitted to having plans to sell refurbs in India, the other part was doing a US like carrier subsidised phones are difficult in India. He says due to the tax structure it is difficult. I am not a CA so I can't speak for the validity of the concern he raised. At the end of the day telecom operators are businesses and they need to protect their interests. Apple wants to push more products and if they can't push cheap iphones through the carrier route, they will find other way.

While the counter argument will be that India has grown and has a lot phones now. But with each additional phone the e-waste burden is increasing a lot. Apple is selling a very high margin product and they could very well try to have differential pricing for developing countries. Given their technology they could probably think of something rather than trying to push 2nd hand products.

So unfortunately there is no white and black to this discussion.

 

[tracerbullet]

Is it surprising? It will take just 2-3 posts before it turns into a flame war about iphone vs Android.

I would, actually, be very interested to hear the opinion of any iPhone supporter today in India. That company has really run itself into the ground. Ironically, I used to be a die-hard Apple fan all through the noughties. But post Steve Jobs, I have lost most respect for the company (a little still remains!). What they are doing in India with the iPhone is plain and simple disrespect for Indian consumers. Unfortunately, we're lapping it up

 

[superczar]

. Unfortunately, we're lapping it up

Not necessarily - (literally)
Most of The macbook line is priced nearly at par with the US ..
In fact if one were in the market for a reasonably premium laptop, windows options from other manufacturers are so overpriced, they are not even close..
In fact i wouldn't even consider any laptop on the Indian market today except for Apple


Even iphone prices are by and large reasonable if you look around for deals (although personally I wouldn't get an iphone)

 

[rdst_1]

I don't see why Apple is not allowed to sell refurbs while Amazon is openly selling refurb OPOs.
Also, IMO, availability of refurbs with warranty at a lower price point will lower prices of second hand sets further and kinda make iPhones more affordable.

 

[tracerbullet]

Not necessarily - (literally)
Most of The macbook line is priced nearly at par with the US ..
In fact if one were in the market for a reasonably premium laptop, windows options from other manufacturers are so overpriced, they are not even close..
In fact i wouldn't even consider any laptop on the Indian market today except for Apple

Yes, the Macbooks are priced roughly the same as in the US. But we've hardly seen any innovation even in that department in the past few years. For a company that prized itself on its innovations, and by setting the bar so high that competitors couldn't match up, I'm really disappointed.

By the way, this March my 2010 MBP finally conked (just some lines on the screen, it's still a perfectly functional machine with an external monitor) so I needed to buy a new machine. Naturally, my first priority was the 13-inch Macbook Air. But total landed cost was working out to Rs ~60,000 + Rs 15,000 for applecare protection plan = Rs ~75,000. I finally bought the Asus UX305CA for Rs 55,000 including extended warranty. Check this link: http://www.flipkart.com/asus-zenboo...abook/p/itmefjnwjspxkruh?pid=COMEFJNWNBHZP4QB
It's 20k cheaper, full HD screen, 256GB SSD, 3x USB 3.0 ports and it's lighter than the Air. I surprised myself by eventually going for it. I'm also getting quite used to it and I don't regret my decision one bit.

What am I trying to say? For a once die-hard Apple fan, Apple really didn't have to do much to keep me. But something better and nicer came along, and this time it was Apple that couldn't match up. Their loss.

 

[superczar]

By the way, this March my 2010 MBP finally conked (just some lines on the screen, it's still a perfectly functional machine with an external monitor) so I needed to buy a new machine. Naturally, my first priority was the 13-inch Macbook Air. But total landed cost was working out to Rs ~60,000 + Rs 15,000 for applecare protection plan = Rs ~75,000. I finally bought the Asus UX305CA for Rs 55,000 including extended warranty. Check this link: http://www.flipkart.com/asus-zenboo...abook/p/itmefjnwjspxkruh?pid=COMEFJNWNBHZP4QB
It's 20k cheaper, full HD screen, 256GB SSD, 3x USB 3.0 ports and it's lighter than the Air. I surprised myself by eventually going for it. I'm also getting quite used to it and I don't regret my decision one bit.

What am I trying to say? For a once die-hard Apple fan, Apple really didn't have to do much to keep me. But something better and nicer came along, and this time it was Apple that couldn't match up. Their loss.

True - I have a slightly different way of looking at it though

Longevity: Your Macbook ran ~6 years before starting to give up the ghost.. Similarly, I have not had any problems with any of mine either - I guess the point I am trying to make is that the generally good build quality of the Macs makes the ACP mostly moot beyond the year 1 warranty, esp at 25% of the cost of a new one (It's like insurance, for the extended warranty to be wortwhile, there needs to be a 25% or greater probablility of the device conking out between end of year 1 and year 3 )
On the other hand, I get Dell Latitudes from my office - I get them changed every 18 months on average because something or the other starts going wrong with them - And no, I don't abuse the office systems any more than the home one - If anything, the home laptops have to bear the brunt of my smoking.

Price: So I was also looking for a new Mac around 6 odd months ago - Needed something thin and light with a good screen - the XPS 13 was turning out to be more expensive and the UX305 cheaper
than the Macb0ok 12
But after factoring in the trackpad differential (which makes a huge difference in the usability quotient of a laptop) and the overall nicer screen + the ability to charge from a power bank, I chose the rMB

The upfront delta in the cost probably gets covered after a couple of years when it is far easier to dispose a reasonably well cared for Mac than a high end Asus or Dell

Now I am not saying that my use case will fit yours- All I am trying to do is point out the fact that barring Apple, none of the other system manufacturers are bothered to drive volumes outside the entry level systems in India and that shows in the pricing premium they have to charge for the niche volumes they get on them..
Asus probably still tries, The XPS 13 is way overpriced in India , Samsung stopped selling laptops in India altogether, Toshiba/Fujitsu/HP don't even bother to launch the non entry level models..
So why beat up Apple for supposedly disrespecting the India market ?

 

[RS4]

I don't see why Apple is not allowed to sell refurbs while Amazon is openly selling refurb OPOs.
Also, IMO, availability of refurbs with warranty at a lower price point will lower prices of second hand sets further and kinda make iPhones more affordable.

Apple or any other company including One Plus are not allowed to import and sell used items. All of them can sell the refurbs generated from within the country, Apple does the same in USA. But in this case they just want to dump used iphones from USA to India. The same rules apply to automobile industry in India which is why BMW, Merc, Audi assemble their new cars in India instead of just importing/ dumping used cars from Germany which would work out much cheaper but no jobs or local factories in that case.

 

[i_rock098]

For me personally the biggest achievement for Apple would be when they price their new iPhone exactly the same as the US unlocked one without the apple tax premium on it.

Still wouldn't make me buy an iPhone again though.

 

[ankxxs]

I agree with the part where govt. did not allow Apple to sell there refurbished products in India. It is necessary that our home grown companies economic interest should be considered. Why people will go for similar priced new product while comparable technologically, to a product which is "imported" & selling only on hype.

 

[deep909]

I think apple should be allowed to sell refurbished phones in India in exchange for taxes or other benefits to government. Then it wouldn't be called dumped phone.

 

[Superbad]

Is it surprising? It will take just 2-3 posts before it turns into a flame war about iphone vs Android, why India is a bad place and it deserves all the things not only Apple but everyone is doing or even why talk about apple doing this when Samsung is selling downgraded (processor-wise and screen) versions of their flagship phones or even this is to protect some lobby, Ambani's Lyf Phone I guess. All this and more can be found on this thread:
https://www.techenclave.com/communi...n-to-dump-used-iphones-in-india.179460/page-3

So no point in going over that all over again.

AFAIK Samsung is selling their latest flagship phone at par with the USA pricing.
Also nothing is downgraded for Samsung lineup if flagships are being discussed. The exynos variant is better in many aspects than its snapdragon counterpart. It's stable,has better DAC, no throttling issues like the sd820 and better battery backup.

As for the ndtv interview its clear Apple wants to project itself at least to their prospective buyer in India as some elite company.
Give it some time ,they will announce their manufacturing facility in a year or two.

 

[Superbad]

I don't see why Apple is not allowed to sell refurbs while Amazon is openly selling refurb OPOs.
Also, IMO, availability of refurbs with warranty at a lower price point will lower prices of second hand sets further and kinda make iPhones more affordable.

Those refurb were returns which were originally sold as new pieces for the Indian market.
Apple is asking permission to sell refurbs from other countries which sounds like dumping thrash.

 

[sharktale1212]

AFAIK Samsung is selling their latest flagship phone at par with the USA pricing.
Also nothing is downgraded for Samsung lineup if flagships are being discussed. The exynos variant is better in many aspects than its snapdragon counterpart. It's stable,has better DAC, no throttling issues like the sd820 and better battery backup.

As for the ndtv interview its clear Apple wants to project itself at least to their prospective buyer in India as some elite company.
Give it some time ,they will announce their manufacturing facility in a year or two.

The post, which was merged from another thread btw, was meant to highlight the point about quality of discussions on TE nowadays. None of the things I mentioned, which included a tongue in cheek about Lyf phones, were against or for the topic on Apple selling refurb products.