Apple's Refurbished and Clearance online store now offers iPhones for the first time, starting with iPhone 6s and 6s Plus models
Apple recently updated its online refurbished store to include a range of different iPhone models, giving customers a way to purchase a certified refurbished device at a lower cost directly from Apple.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple has been steadily tightening its grip on how iPhones are bought and paid for in the US: it opened direct unlocked sales with the SIM-free iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, then extended its installment-based Upgrade Program to online-store purchases earlier this year. Adding iPhones to the Refurbished and Clearance store is the next step — Apple now participates in the lower-priced end of its own market instead of leaving it to carriers and third-party refurbishers.
The timing matters because the iPhone 6s generation is still in active global rollout, having just completed a second-wave launch across 40 countries. A certified-refurbished channel gives Apple a way to serve price-sensitive buyers without cutting the price of new units.
First-order effects
- Price-sensitive customers can now buy an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus directly from Apple as a certified refurbished device at a discount, with Apple's warranty behind it rather than a reseller's.
- Apple gains a controlled outlet for trade-in and returned inventory, capturing margin on devices that previously flowed into the gray refurb market.
Second-order effects
- Third-party refurbishers and carrier pre-owned programs lose their differentiation on trust, since Apple now offers the same class of device with first-party certification — pressuring their pricing.
- A refurb channel pairs naturally with the Upgrade Program's trade-in loop: devices coming back through upgrades can be recertified and resold by Apple itself, deepening the lock-in of that program.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Apple builds a closed device-lifecycle business — sell new, finance via upgrades, take back, refurbish, resell — a structure later formalized in programs like the Klarna-partnered Apple Upgrade leasing plan, which replaced the original Upgrade Program entirely.
- Apple's pricing ladder gets a new bottom rung below new-unit prices, a lever it later used explicitly when it cut 6s and 7 prices by $100 and pushed the SE to what was then the lowest iPhone price point ever ($349) — making entry-level iPhone economics an Apple-controlled decision rather than a carrier subsidy outcome.
The trend: Apple is extending control over the iPhone's full commercial lifecycle — purchase, financing, trade-in, and now certified resale — turning the secondary market into part of its own funnel.