4 ms·

That would kneecap first party recycling and trade-in discounts. Apple's incentive to provide those services is to reduce the size of the secondary market.

by qppo 6y ago

arrosenberg 6y ago
What makes that a problem? Both of those programs increase Apple's control and power in the market.
- ygjb 6y ago
  It's a problem since a large part of Apple's value proposition is positioning it's devices as luxury, high-end devices. Having obsolete and used devices generally available on the market at a large scale dilutes this brand. It's a pretty awful perspective considering the harm that this kind of consumerism does to the environment. I have also seen this sort of behavior fist hand when a team I worked with insisted I destroy the t-shirts for an event instead of donating them to a charity since it would negatively impact the brand :/
  - brmgb 6y ago
    > Having obsolete and used devices generally available on the market at a large scale dilutes this brand. I don't think it applies in this case. Despite its marketing, Apple very much is a mass market company and you can't really both be mass market and luxury. Also, there are already plenty of second hand iPhones on the market. So much that I seriously doubt it is supply constrained. If I had to guess, it's probably more about avoiding competition in the SE segment than protecting the brand.
- robjan 6y ago
  They don't want to either cannibalise their sales or make their brand suffer from "prole drift" [0] [0]: https://archive.is/Kyyf1 https://archive.is/Kyyf1
  - black_puppydog 6y ago
    The question was probably not why this is a problem for apple, but why anyone else but apple should consider it a problem.
  - rasz 6y ago
    Hey, this Times article is by James Harkin, writer for QI and co-host of 'No Such Thing as a Fish' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Harkin_(podcaster) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Harkin_(podcaster) Edit: or not, seems there is another author sharing same name http://www.jamesharkin.co.uk/about/ http://www.jamesharkin.co.uk/about/
pier25 6y ago
From an environmental point of view, recycling should be the last resort. Sending 100k usable devices to recycling is an absolute waste of resources. It's immoral and in contradiction with Apple's environmental commitment.

That would kneecap first party recycling and trade-in discounts. Apple's incentive to provide those services is to reduce the size of the secondary market.

by qppo 6y ago

That would kneecap first party recycling and trade-in discounts. Apple's incentive to provide those services is to reduce the size of the secondary market.

arrosenberg 6y ago

What makes that a problem? Both of those programs increase Apple's control and power in the market.

ygjb 6y ago
It's a problem since a large part of Apple's value proposition is positioning it's devices as luxury, high-end devices. Having obsolete and used devices generally available on the market at a large scale dilutes this brand. It's a pretty awful perspective considering the harm that this kind of consumerism does to the environment. I have also seen this sort of behavior fist hand when a team I worked with insisted I destroy the t-shirts for an event instead of donating them to a charity since it would negatively impact the brand :/
- brmgb 6y ago
  > Having obsolete and used devices generally available on the market at a large scale dilutes this brand. I don't think it applies in this case. Despite its marketing, Apple very much is a mass market company and you can't really both be mass market and luxury. Also, there are already plenty of second hand iPhones on the market. So much that I seriously doubt it is supply constrained. If I had to guess, it's probably more about avoiding competition in the SE segment than protecting the brand.
robjan 6y ago
They don't want to either cannibalise their sales or make their brand suffer from "prole drift" [0] [0]: https://archive.is/Kyyf1 https://archive.is/Kyyf1
- black_puppydog 6y ago
  The question was probably not why this is a problem for apple, but why anyone else but apple should consider it a problem.
- rasz 6y ago
  Hey, this Times article is by James Harkin, writer for QI and co-host of 'No Such Thing as a Fish' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Harkin_(podcaster) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Harkin_(podcaster) Edit: or not, seems there is another author sharing same name http://www.jamesharkin.co.uk/about/ http://www.jamesharkin.co.uk/about/

pier25 6y ago

From an environmental point of view, recycling should be the last resort. Sending 100k usable devices to recycling is an absolute waste of resources. It's immoral and in contradiction with Apple's environmental commitment.