Showing posts with label iphones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iphones. Show all posts
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Prices On The Black Market For Gold iPhones Are Completely Insane
Apples inability to supply the insane demand for the new gold iPhone 5S has created a second-hand iPhone price bubble on eBay and a black market of gold iPhone scalpers in China.
One gold iPhone just sold on eBay for $10,100.
Its not clear why Apple cant give everyone who wants one a gold iPhone. Officially, online orders with Apple wont be fulfilled until October. We noted over the weekend that the gold iPhone never actually existed in some stores, countries, and among some wireless carriers. The flagship Apple Store in San Francisco, for instance, only ever had 20 gold iPhones.
With the gold iPhone completely unavailable to ordinary consumers minutes after it went on sale, some have turned to eBay, where gold iPhones are selling for as much as $4,600 at the time of writing (pack of three). Thats the highest ask, but in active auctions gold iPhones are seeing brisk bidding all the way up to $2,247. One single gold iPhone eventually sold for a staggering $10,100.
In China, a gold iPhone on the "gray market" will cost you the equivalent of $1,634, about twice the price of retail. Scalpers were buying gold iPhones in Hong Kong on the day of sale for US$1,161, still more than the $721 original price tag.
Lastly, a company called Gold Genie is selling a real gold-plated version of the iPhone starting at $2,850. An actual iPhone 5S isnt actually gold, of course. Its colored aluminum. Gold Genies version is actual gold plate:
goldgenie
Data source: via BI (ByJim Edwards)
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Microsoft wants you to buy their products to start offering cash for iPhones
Earlier in the month, Microsoft -- which would love for you to pick up one of its new second-generation Surface 2 tablets -- began offering iPad owners a paltry US$200 or more for a trade-in in hopes that youd actually fall for the ploy, grab the cash and buy one of their beleaguered tablets. Now Forbes is reporting that Microsoft will be offering you a minimum of $200 for your iPhone 4s or iPhone 5 at some of the US and Canadian Microsoft Stores.
In this case, the trade-in promotion is part of the #timetoswitch campaign, and Microsoft is hoping that youll ditch your nice and relatively new iPhone for a Windows Phone instead of an iPhone 5s or 5c. Not that Microsoft seems desperate or anything, but they also have an online campaign that started a few weeks ago where theyll take any Apple, Android or BlackBerry device in return for a Visa gift card. I wonder how much theyll give me for that third-generation iPod classic thats sitting on the shelf...
Forbes Kelly Clay said it best: "Apples impressive sales figures of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in the past few days mean millions of consumers are not only freshly tied into new contracts but overtly prefer the iOS platform over Windows as they waited to purchase the new line of iPhones -- and avoided purchasing a Windows Phone when they had the chance."
Its beginning to look like Microsofts business strategy for the near future is to become the leading vendor of used smartphones and tablets.
Data source: via TUAW (By Steven Sande)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)