The iPhone is not just big business for Apple with other companies throughout the eco-system competing for their slice of the pie. Aside from the end users, mobile operators and accessory makers – resellers are also looking forward to the iPhone 5 (or whatever it’s going to be called) launch. Their pitch is simple – offer existing iPhone users some money for their older models, refurbish them and then sell for more.
To illustrate just how solid this business is, we’re giving you the numbers from the reseller site Gazelle — only minutes after the iPhone 4 was announced, more than 10,000 old iPhones flowed in. In total, there were about 32,000 iPhones traded on Gazelle last year, while this year’s figure was only around 18,000. Needless to say, the upcoming iPhone 5 launch may easily change the numbers.
It’s important to emphasize the iPhone 4 was a big update and we hope Apple will manage to impress us again with its latest smartphone. If you have thoughts on that subject (whether iPhone 5 will impress us), we have a separate post talking about it where you’re free to join the conversation. 😉
[Via: TUAW]