Apple rumoured to be adding Android and BlackBerry to reuse and recycling programme
As part of its existing reuse and recycling programme, Apple is rumoured to be considering extending the service out to non-Apple brands.
Apple has plans in place to begin accepting smartphone brands other than its own as trade-ins for new Apple kit, an insider has told 9to5mac. Devices that will be accepted include those from Apple arch enemy, Google’s Android, and former smartphone champion turned mobile dunce, BlackBerry, an insider at Apple has stated.
The extended reuse and recycling programme will begin operation in coming weeks as soon as Apple store staff have undergone training, which should begin later this week, the site reported.
For end users wishing to buy an Apple device today, old Apple smartphones, laptops, tablets and desktop devices can be used in exchange for gift cards to go towards the cost of an Apple product. The move to extend that to non-Apple brands is thought to be part of Apple’s bid to grab more marketshare from Android, and to retain its recent small lead in the smartphone market against Android, and globally against Samsung device shipments.
Using a switchover service should appeal to customers, as according to Kantar Worldpanel Comtech, in the last quarter of 2014 13.9% of iOS customers in the US switched over from an Android device, up from 12.1%.
Smart Chimps recently reported that Samsung lost the number one smartphone sales spot to Apple in the global smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2014, a position that Samsung had held since 2011. The manufacturer’s unit sales of smartphones in the fourth quarter of last year dropped to 73,032, 19.9% of global marketshare, from 83,317 which represented 29.5% of the global market in the same period one year previously, according to research firm, Gartner.
However, over the course of the entire year Samsung still dominated Apple, Gartner said, even though that share has dropped from its 2013 figures. Samsung had 307,597 smartphone sales to end users in 2014, representing 24.7%, compared to 299,795 or 30.9% marketshare in 2013. Apple made it to sales of 191,426 units in 2014, up significantly from 150,786 in 2013. Yet its marketshare dropped from 15.5% in 2013 to 15.4% in 2014.
Meanwhile, Samsung stated last week that it intends to attract buyers for its mobile devices through the use of more premium end materials across its range, in a bid to win back marketshare following the lead taken by Apple last December. The company will create smartphones in all areas of its portfolio with metal casings, HD displays and slim, attractive designs.
