AppAdvice International: iPhone Trade-Ins, Amazon Prime And China
First on the agenda this week, we heard that Canada is expected to receive its own version of Apple’s iPhone trade-in program in the coming weeks, and that Apple Retail Store staff are already being trained on the incoming scheme.
So far, Canada is Apple’s biggest retail market without access to the iPhone trade-in program (with 29 stores nationwide), and as such it’s no surprise Cupertino is looking to expand the scheme over the border. As a reminder, Apple first launched the iPhone trade-in program in the United States back in August last year, and it reached the United Kingdom soon after. If you’re unfamiliar with how the scheme works, our previous article explained:
The program allows customers to trade in an iPhone 3G, iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, or iPhone 5 in U.S. Apple Retail Stores. The smartphones are then recycled within the United States, however trade-in values offered to customers by Apple have so far been unimpressive (and some $50 less than what Gazelle, for example, is offering).
Our article added: “It’s worth noting, however, that while convenient, Apple’s iPhone trade-in program doesn’t offer customers the best deals going for used smartphones. As a reminder, our yearly iPhone Trade-In Guides highlight the differences in handset prices offered by Apple, Gazelle, Glyde, NextWorth, and others.”
Click here for our last iPhone Trade-In Guide.
Amazon Prime in BritainOver in Britain, LoveFilm Instant – the Amazon-owned TV and movie streaming service – is about to be incorporated within a higher priced Amazon Prime offering. The new streaming service, Amazon Prime Instant, has already launched overseas, and appears to be the beginning of the company’s efforts to amalgamate its Prime offerings internationally.
In Britain, Amazon Prime costs £49 per year, and Lovefilm Instant previously costed as little as £72 for an annual subscription. From next week, though, British customers of the online retail giant are going to be charged £79 annually for a refreshed Prime offering.
This will include the usual free one-day delivery for select Amazon orders, but will also feature access to Amazon’s online library of more than 15,000 movies and TV shows, all of which can be streamed to a computer or mobile device. Plus, subscribers can still borrow e-books from Amazon using the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.
The change comes into effect from tomorrow, Feb. 26, though the jury’s still out as to whether Brits are getting a fair deal. The new £79 price tag will be a bitter pill to swallow for Prime subscribers who don’t care for access to a TV and movie streaming service, yet as our article continued:
If you’re a Netflix subscriber with a Prime account, however – or if you subscribe to Lovefilm – this could work out for you. Prime Instant Video’s main rival, Netflix, charges £5.99 per month in Britain, and though this provides access to the service’s original programming and unique catalog, its total annual fee of almost £72 isn’t much less than the cost of Amazon’s revamped, all-in-one Prime service.
I’ll be canceling my Prime membership as a result of this price change. How about you?
Apple and ChinaThe only way is up for Apple’s share of China’s smartphone market, we announced earlier this week, and this indeed appears to be the case: new data from IDC explained that even ahead of the Apple-China Mobile iPhone deal, Cupertino’s share of the country’s huge smartphone market had increased again.
Though China is still dominated by the presence of Android, Apple took a seven percent share of its market in Q4 2013 (which saw a rise from six percent). “Significantly, the fourth quarter was the first full quarter after Apple released its iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in the country, and sales of the flagship handset in China are said to have driven Apple’s share of the market up,” our article noted.
Apple’s share of China’s market should have increased further from Q1 2014 onwards, though as of this writing more recent data on China’s smartphone market isn’t available. China Mobile, as the nation’s largest carrier, has more than 760 million subscribers on its books; yet if recent analysis has it right, Cupertino won’t meet with real success in China until a bigger iPhone hits the market.
We’ll keep you updated with further information as we receive it.
Check back with us next Tuesday for another recap of the week’s international Apple-related news.
In the meantime, see: Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker By MyFitnessPal Is Now A Universal App For iOS, This New Security Flaw Makes iOS Susceptible To Key-Logging, and Pocket Informant Gains New Features In First Update Following Freemium Switch.