A Look at the Refurbished Phone Market ⇥ wsj.com

I though Joanna Stern’s look, for the Wall Street Journal, at the second-hand smartphone market was interesting as a whole, but one of the things Stern wrote is particularly notable:

[…] What I do know is that phones really do have a circle of life — cue Elton John — and selling booger-free used phones can benefit carriers, resellers and maybe Apple, too: Even a refurbished iPhone means a blue bubble in your messaging app.

As Apple’s services business is increasingly important to its overall financial picture, the long-tail effect of a healthy second-hand phone market is undoubtably attractive to the company. It reduces the cost for buying into the ecosystem while reducing pricing pressure on Apple’s part.

If your local library does not have a subscription to the Journal, the video is also on YouTube.