The Refurbished iPhone Story

Michael Gartenberg | August 22, 2007, 09:46 AM

One of the interesting things about Apple is how every detail, every word is parsed and analyzed for nuance and meaning. So it's no surprise that when Apple posted that re-furbished iPhone's could be has on their site for $100 less, it sent some folks into a tizzy about the state of the iPhone market.

Rubbish. Just about every major vendor, Apple (which sells iPods, Macs and Apple TV re-furbs as well) included sells re-furbs. Nothing new or surprising and it says nothing about the state of the market. It does say some units break and need to be replaced, some just get returned for whatever reason. Those units get re-furbished and are sold back into the channel. The numbers of re-furbished units is likely low but no one sits or tosses that inventory. It's a common industry practice.