Apple revives plans to sell used iPhones in India: report

Apple Inc has revived plans to sell used, second hand iPhones in India where it finds a huge appetite for smart phones, even as the company proposed to assemble its smart phone brands in India.

Reports quoting official sources said Apple has put forward a request to sell used iPhones in India as it negotiates with the government for concessions to start production in the country.

The company has proposed to bring all used iPhones from across the world to be refurbished and sold in India, as it will require minimum manufacturing infrastructure and little technology transfer.

The request is included in a list of concessions along with 15-year tax concessions that Apple has sought for assembling some new phones and refurbishing discarded iPhones.

Government officials and industry executives had resisted Apple's earlier attempt to import discarded iPhones into India as it would make India a dumping ground for electronic waste.

Also, it would make a mockery of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's `Make in India' programme by turning it into `Dump in India' programme.

The company is exerting its brand influence at the negotiating table, calling these discarded phones as pre-owned devices, so that it can compete in a price sensitive market pitting its used phones against new and cheaper phones available in the market.

The company collects a large number of used iPhones through upgrade schemes in the US and around the world every time it introduces a new device, some of which are broken down into their component bits and others refurbished and sold.

India could become a viable destination for many of those gadgets.

''These phones still have life in them,'' said Anshul Gupta, Mumbai-based research director at Gartner Inc.

He estimates that 70 per cent of phones sold in India go for under $200. ''In India and other emerging markets, buyers cannot afford the flagship model so opt for older generation iPhones whose prices drop.''

If Apple is permitted to import and sell used electronics in the country, there could be a flood of electronics waste in the country and more and more companies will seek such concessions to sell even cheaper.

Apple sold just 2.5 million phones last year, about 2 per cent of the global market, and a fraction of the 750 million smartphones are estimated to be sold by 2020. Samsung Electronics Co is the biggest selling brand in India while Chinese vendors Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi are also gaining significant market share.