Apple Offers China Premium-Priced Refurbished Products

Ed Sutherland ()

china-flagApple has begun offering China refurbished iPods and iMacs, but at prices higher than U.S. retail prices, according to reports Monday.

In one example, a 2.8 GHz iMac discounted by 12 percent to $2,059 is still priced higher than the U.S. pre-sales tax $1,799.

While only 0.25 percent of the huge China market, the Asian giant helped Apple increase third-quarter sales by 49 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Apple’s slim market share in China is due to its high prices. Research firm IDC called China a “niche market” for Apple.

Apple opened its first retail outlet in China last year.

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In related news, electronics retailer Best Buy launched a discount of up to $100 for ‘Reward Zone’ members. The discount, available through February 28, reduces the $199 8GB iPhone and 16GB iPhone version to $99 and $199, respectively. Regular Reward Zone members would receive a $50 discount on the handsets regularly priced at $199 and $249.

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About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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  • David Langford

    You say “While only 0.25 percent of the huge China market, the Asian giant helped Apple increase third-quarter sales by 49 percent . . . . ” But the article you cite clearly states that “Apple’s recent push in China enabled it to grow its unit sales in the country by 49% in the third quarter from a year earlier . . . .” In other words, the growth of 49% refers only to Apple’s sales growth in China, not, as it appears to read, that Apple’s share of the Chinese market increased Apple’s total sales by 49%, presumably because China is so “huge.” That would be a neat trick with just one store in China. Busy store. Such large jumps are not unusual with extremely low market share, such as 0.25%, and in fact growth is slower than Apple would like.