Best Buy trade-in offer to take any working smartphone for at least $100 toward iPhone 5s, 5c
Electronics retailer Best Buy appears on the verge of kicking off another trade-in program aimed at getting iPhone 5s and 5c customers through its doors, this time offering a minimum of $100 toward …
Context & Ripple Effects
Best Buy's reported $100-minimum smartphone trade-in lands mid-way through a fall of escalating upgrade incentives: Walmart launched an in-store trade-in program on September 10, and [[a:1200166|Microsoft followed days later with offers up to $350 for iPhones, iPads, Android and BlackBerry devices]]. Retailers are paying cash for hardware they don't make to win the Apple upgrade cycle.
The move also extends Best Buy's aggressive 2013 discounting posture under CEO Hubert Joly's store-sales revival push — the same chain that ran a $50 iPhone 5C promotion two weeks after launch in early October, after having sold used iPhones at a discount as far back as January 2009.
First-order effects
- If confirmed, any customer holding a working smartphone — Android, BlackBerry or Windows Phone included — gets a guaranteed $100 credit toward a 5s or 5c at Best Buy, directly lowering the out-of-pocket cost of switching platforms.
Second-order effects
- Rivals like Walmart and Microsoft's retail channel must match or beat a flat $100 floor, pushing trade-in payouts upward across the market and turning used-handset sourcing into a competitive cost line rather than a side program.
Third-order effects
- Trade-in credits are becoming standard infrastructure for carrier-style phone retailing, shifting the upgrade decision from the carrier store to big-box retailers who can bundle discounts, trade-ins and accessories against each other.
The trend: Smartphone trade-ins are becoming a standing retail weapon, with big-box chains bidding up handset buyback values to capture the annual iPhone upgrade wave.