Apple trots out refurb iPhones, $100 off list price

If you want to run the risk of getting stuck with the iPhone we sent back because the proximity sensor crapped out (that's another story for another time), get ready to grab yourself a deal. Refurbished iPhones now look to be in stock at the online Apple Store, the supposed result of a nice, stiff mix of iReturners and busted devices. Both the 4GB and 8GB refurb units are being offered at $100 off -- $399 and $499, respectively -- making the 4GB model the slightly better value at a full 20 percent off its MSRP. Not a bad discount, as long as they got around to fixing that bum sensor.

[Via TUAW]

[Tony @ Aug 20th 2007 11:40AM]

Wow after only a couple of months out there has been that many returns to where they can be reselling them ?

interesting ?

[The General @ Aug 20th 2007 11:45AM]

They also take the factory defects, fix them, and sell them as refurbs.

Most of the time when you buy a refurb from Apple, you are the first owner.

[ARiza @ Aug 20th 2007 11:59AM]

And you can add the 2yr Applecare extended warranty to them - this is great news

[Econ @ Aug 20th 2007 4:04PM]

The General: Citation needed on that "Most of the time when you buy a refurb from Apple, you are the first owner" comment. How the hell would you know that? Are you Steve Jobs?

[Horglasdr @ Aug 20th 2007 5:00PM]

You don't have to be Steve Jobs to know something like that, dipshit. Maybe he's a factory worker or something.

[whathefah? @ Aug 21st 2007 2:35AM]

If a device is rejected off the line in a factory and then fixed before leaving the factory, it's sold as new. Refurbished devices are second owner only, open box and returned devices.

Get out of the RDF long enough to use your common sense already.

[Kyrra @ Aug 20th 2007 11:50AM]

I just returned mine for service (got me a service phone right now). The entire horizontal row where the YouTube and Stocks button are, the touch-sensor stopped working. The phone tech support person wasn't very useful, except for point me to go to my local Apple store and talk with a mac genius. That was a much more pleasant experience than phone tech support was.

And from what I heard talking to the mac genius at the Apple store, anytime someone sends their phone in for service (for some problem like I ran into), they will just send back a brand new phone. So I'm guessing all the phones that have been sent in for service are now being resold as refurbs.

[Andrew Harden @ Aug 21st 2007 8:55AM]

I sent in my 5G iPod about a month ago after it stopped working - I wasn't even getting the "sad iPod" screen anymore. A week later I got what appeared to be a brand new iPod wrapped in the sticky plastic (but sans the iPod packaging) with no wear and tear on it at all.

My understanding is that if you buy an iPhone or other Apple product and simply remove the cellophane or open the box and return it without using the product at all Apple is legally required to sell it as refurbished.

I don't see why they wouldn't fix broken sensors or replace screens - enough gimped "refurbished" iPhones (or iPods, MacBooks, whatever) hit the street and that's a class action suit that Apple would have a hard time defeating.

[mitchell @ Aug 20th 2007 11:54AM]

@ Tony,

They sold ~250,000 of them... they were the most talked about phones in a VERY LONG TIME. Some people were naturally not going to love the phone for various reasons. This isn't surprising at all. The price is a little surprising (Apple usually only gives $50 rebates on such devices [items that cost under $500]).

The $399 phone actually is appealing considering a new iPod Nano is $150 at the same capacity.

[Stephane @ Aug 20th 2007 12:02PM]

PLEASE OPINE:

I, like many others, love the iPhone and think there is great
potential for the device. However, I am also troubled by the lack of
native third party applications due to Apple's locked system. I have
seen numerous posts from iPhone users begging to have their favorite
Mac widgets ported over to the iPhone. While I think that would be
great, I don't see Apple rushing to do this until they can somehow
monetize these widgets. Well yesterday, as I checked out Amazon's
new
iPhone-specific web portal, it dawned on me that Apple can create a
huge revenue stream by getting into the ad business, while also
giving
us all the other widgets we love so much.

Imagine the following:
You plug your iPhone into your computer one day and discover a new
tab
called myMall. Under this tab is a listing of popular retailers,
whose
online stores you'd like to have synced to your iPhone. Think
'bookmarked,' but much better because when you next turn on your
iPhone you find a button on the home page called myMall. Clicking it
leads to a page similar to the home page, but each new button is a
native widget for the retailers you've chosen to sync with iTunes.
Now, the appeal here is the absolute ease and pleasure in maneuvering
these widgets to carry out purchases.

Imagine now that you have chosen to sync the Barnes & Noble widget
with your iPhone. Then, one day, you're sitting on the bus and see
someone reading a book you have been meaning to read yourself, but
kept on forgetting. Well, instead of making yet another mental note,
what if you could do the following:

1. Click on your B&N widget.

2. Type in your search into a VERY simple and elegant page.

3. Have all of your results come up in the Cover Flow format, with
only product pictures showing. (let's face it, Cover Flow is great,
but wasted on the iPod).

4. Scroll back and forth through the result and click on a cover to
make it flip and reveal product details (synopsis, ratings, review,
other formats, etc.)

5. Quickly add items to your shopping cart.

6. Pay for your items using one of the credit cards saved on your
iTunes (this is already done with songs so it can't be that difficult
to build on), or enter new credit card information.

7. Have your item(s) shipped to an address that is saved in your
iTunes account, or enter a new shipping address.

8. Enter a pin number of sorts to confirm my order and finalize the
transaction.

I realize the process listed above 'appears' long, but anyone can see
that the actual use of this 'widget' would be as fluid and simple as
the google maps interface that is currently present on the iPhone.
Further, with something like this generating revenue for Apple they
should have a greater incentive to provide the non-retail-oriented
widgets (like AIM, To Do Lists, lyrics search) that we all been
clamoring for.

That is the idea, and I would love some feedback from any and all on
its feasibility and:

1. How it can be refined.

2. The ideal pricing structure between Apple and the participating
retailers.

3. Security issues regarding the storage of private financial data on
iTunes, and any holes I'm not thinking of right now.

4. How Apple's relationship with Google can be utilized here.

5. The potential reaction from ad giants such as Google.

6. Possible legal ramifications.

7. A list of stores that would work well as iPhone widgets.
Personally, I would love to have the following store widgets on my
iPhone: Barnes & Nobel, eBay, JetBlue, 1800Flowers, Nike, Best Buy,
Cirtcuit City, Walmart, Apple Store, Game Stop, Puma, Pottery Barn,
Ikea, Amazon, Ticketmaster, Yankees (team specific widgets?),
Fandango, Moviefone, Gap (simple retailers, but no giants like
Macy's?), Expedia, Hotels.com, Sephora.

8. Oh yeah, good idea or bad idea?

[The General @ Aug 20th 2007 12:05PM]

Your comment is too long. Please never do that again.

kthxbye

[Stephane @ Aug 20th 2007 12:50PM]

My apologies General, but I saw the idea as a great way to gain access to all the potential we know the iPhone has and was anxious to guage my fellow Engadget'ers' opinion on it.

[The General @ Aug 20th 2007 12:59PM]

Well, I think your idea sucks. Paying for applications? Screw that, I want them for free. And right now, I get 3rd party apps for free on my iPhone. And no, I'm not talking about those crappy webapps, I'm talking about apps like these:

http://code.google.com/p/mobileterminal/
hxxp://code.google.com/p/mobilestudio/
hxxp://code.google.com/p/iphonenes/
hxxp://code.google.com/p/iphonedoom/
http://code.google.com/p/mobilelauncher/
http://iphone.nullriver.com/beta/

Et cetera.

There is a LOT of development going on right now. TONS of apps coming out weekly. I think I'll stick with my free, open source apps instead of hoping for some webstore outlet for payware.

[Stephane @ Aug 20th 2007 1:33PM]

General - the idea is for OTHER companies to pay for the opportunity to work closely with Apple on the development of estore widgets. I believe that would enhance the usibility of the iPhone, while hopefully also giving Apple a reason to throw in more freebies in the form of natively built widgets such as Netflix management, to do list, wikipedia, etc. I think this would be a far less intrusive form of advertisement than the ideas floating around about the rumored Google phone.

[LiQuiD_FuSioN @ Aug 20th 2007 2:22PM]

I think "The General" is just being a general asswipe.

I see what you mean though, Stephane. Instead of trudging the internet for hacks and other open source apps that the average user doesn't care to understand, you're hoping for official apps from companies to be on the iPhone. Not only is it good for consumers who use popular services like Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and eBay, but it's also a huge incentive for companies who want make a profit.

Not sure why no one else seems to grasp your idea. I think if you have the attention span of a chimp your eyes would just see "pay for apps" and immediately be turned off by the idea without reading it all the way.

[jps @ Aug 20th 2007 4:48PM]

If I'm reading this correctly, I think Apple would have the exact same gut-reaction to this that any of it's customers would: revulsion at the idea of turning a 500$ luxury device into adware.

Ultimately there's no reason to insert these as separate widgets when one could easily surf any of those stores via the web browser, except for perhaps Apple somehow cutting in as a middleman and taking a slice off each sale. It seems that you think Apple would be interested in this given the similarity in what you describe to the Itunes Music Store. However, there is actually very little similarity here to the Itunes model Apple currently uses. Apple is in the business of selling songs through Itunes not to turn a profit but to drive sales of ipods. While it may appear that they are interested in being a middleman in the retail market, they are largely in that market only to further their own interests. (There's a good argument to be made that the Itunes store was created largely to legitimize the act of owning mp3's at all, but that's a story for another day) Having convenient access to online stores wouldn't drive more people to buy iphones, especially considering the convenient access to online stores is already built in via the web browser.

Furthermore, why would this drive the creation of non-retail based widgets? I can see no reason why opening up the interface to retail options would create more non-retail options.

In the end, yes they would make money. But they would also cheapen their brand, which in the end, is the most important thing Apple has going for it.

(Ok everyone is complaining about the long post, and I went ahead and followed it up with a long ass response. Sorry about that. After reading LiQuiD_FuSioN's response I felt the need to deconstruct the above. Also, it killed the last half hour I had at work. Booya, time to go home!)

[Ken @ Aug 20th 2007 12:22PM]

Wow, this is a pretty big announcement... I expected apple to take the store down for at least 6 hours so they could build up hype.

[SR @ Aug 20th 2007 12:31PM]

The read link on this page takes you to the apple store and I tried to check the number of refurbished iphones they have in stock. It will
allow you to purchase upto 999 for each item and so it shows 999 4gb & 999 8gb iphones in stock and ready to ship in 1-3 business days.
So that makes about 2000 phones that are returned either because they are not working or the users did not like them. What ever the reason there are a lot of iphones that can save you 100 bucks.

[Matt Bateman @ Aug 20th 2007 12:56PM]

I'm pretty sure that 999 of the 4gb and 999 of the 8gb phones is nothing more than a ordering-system limit, and has nothing to do with the actual amount of phones you can order.

[brisk @ Aug 20th 2007 12:36PM]

do you have to sign up for 2-year contract with ATT to get this price?

[Alex Huf @ Aug 20th 2007 1:28PM]

I think you never had to sign a 2 year contract with apple to BUY the phone. We just get trapped into the 2 year contract when trying to ACTIVATE the phone.

So to answer your question, no 2 year contract required to buy it from apple.com. But when it arrives and you're all excited, come activation on itunes, ATT's contract requirements will rear their ugly head.

[Darnell @ Aug 20th 2007 1:26PM]

I just want a friggin' iPhone.

[Jake @ Aug 20th 2007 1:36PM]

The quality assurance attention on a refurb is probably alot better than a new one. Just as long as there is no cosmetic flaws I think this will be a hot seller.

[Xzavier @ Aug 20th 2007 2:04PM]

Refurbs iPhones are selling for $100 BUCKS!!! Where do I sign up!

Seriously though folks -- I wounder if Apple is going to apply those refurbish iPhone sales to that 25 million or whatever goal they have... Pretty sneaky Apple!

http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/26/apples-iphone-to-launch-as-cingular-exclusive/

:D

[cate @ Aug 20th 2007 2:45PM]

it's $100 OFF the phone, not $100 total

[Xzavier @ Aug 20th 2007 5:56PM]

I guess some pep's in here didn't all catch on to my sarcasam, or my spelling either... :D

OK. If the iPhone was REALLY selling for $100 dollars, nobody would be here posting!

Now I will give you a couple of guess where we all might be at. http://www.apple.com/iphone, an apple store, a AT&T store... and guess what we just MIGHT be buying there... you got it... an i---

[Neeko @ Aug 20th 2007 2:42PM]

I wouldnt buy any of these till i know what APPLE has for a new IPOD. iam still shocked how quickly and how much dicount they have on the refurbs..

[Bee Hatch @ Aug 21st 2007 8:56AM]

OMG Why?

[That Boy @ Aug 20th 2007 3:27PM]

This is kinda cool, I just bought one...and I didn't think that I would. Ol' Steve-o got me.

[jps @ Aug 20th 2007 4:54PM]

I've only ever owned refurb Apple products (well, one refurb imac that's doing well for me now, and a in-house demo model G4 tibook that was kicked around my alma mater's student technology sales department) and I have had nothing but good experiences.

But as with all things, I might have just gotten lucky. I'll definitely be getting a refurb iphone, but probably not this turn around (I'm sure these will sell out in the next month, and I wasn't looking to buy one until winter)

[crescentdavid @ Aug 20th 2007 5:08PM]

I can save $100 and get a refurb that locks me into a 2 year contract at PREMIUM prices!!!!! Oh joy. I'm really going to enjoy using that state of the art phone. Look at me, world ... watch me speak the name of the person and have it auto connect through VAD! Look ma, no touch at all! Huh? Not possible?

The iPhone: when voice activated dialing is too confusing. Guaranteed to require pushing buttons. It just works iWay, not your way.

[mark @ Aug 20th 2007 8:40PM]

You can then use the majority of that discount to pay for the new battery you'll eventually need to have installed!

[Unregistered @ Aug 21st 2007 2:00AM]

I'm just going to wait for my phones to die out then get a refurbed third gen iPhone. The current one doesn't do anything for me. I'd rather wait for the mythical mac tablet :)

[Bee Hatch @ Aug 21st 2007 8:58AM]

I want a free coin operated iPhone with all the latest razmatazz on it.