Other What exactly does apple/carries do with these traded in iPhones?

[Korican100]

Do they just hold them on reserve as refurbished? Sell them overseas? Use as parts? What is the incentive for apple/carrier's to allow trading in of used devices to upgrade us to the next gen?

Im sure there is a straightforward answer here, but I'd love more context on exactly how my older devices live out the rest of their days.

Thanks

 

[Matthew.H]

Apple sends them off to be re-manufactured and uses them for replacements. I don't know what the carriers do.

 

[Freakonomics101]

Apple sends them off to be re-manufactured and uses them for replacements. I don't know what the carriers do.

Carriers don’t always use OEM parts to refurbish them. Depends on the carrier.

 

[JPack]

WSJ: Your Love of Your Old Smartphone Is a Problem for Apple and Samsung

"Refurbished phones represent the fastest-growing segment of the global smartphone industry, accounting for nearly one out of every 10 devices sold, according to Counterpoint Technology Market Research, which tracks device sales. Overall smartphone shipments hit 1.6 billion last year, Counterpoint says.

These older phones, which can sell for several hundred dollars, sap some of the demand for brand-new devices, which deliver the biggest profits. A premium handset today is likely to have three, if not four, different owners before it eventually gets tossed, according to industry executives and re-sellers.

But now, U.S. buyers represent 93% of the purchases made at second-hand phone online auctions run by B-Stock, compared with an about-even split between the U.S. and the rest of the world in 2013. Samsung and Apple together sell more than one out of every three phones globally and capture about 95% of the industry's profits. U.S. consumers, spurred by two-year carrier contracts and phone subsidies, were upgrading every 23 months as recently as 2014, according to BayStreet Research, which tracks device sales. Now, people are holding onto their phones for an extra eight months. By next year, the time gap is estimated to widen to 33 months, BayStreet says."​