

Apple's iPhone lock stops thieves, but has unintended consequences - LeoNatan25
http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/13/5742110/apples-iphone-lock-stops-thieves-but-has-unintended-consequences

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DanBC
> "You can't sell a phone as a functioning device because the IMEI number on
> the chip is not going to reactivate. Maybe you can yank the screen and the
> battery and sell those for parts, then melt down the motherboard and get 85
> cents," he says. "The economics are completely upside-down."

To get one kg of gold you need about 3 tons of phones - about 30,000 to 40,000
old handsets.

There are some other metals in there too.

But it's a fantastic waste of resources for perfectly good working phones to
be destroyed like this.

I'm not sure how connected this is to the "dead relative left me an iPhone but
it's locked" problem. In the UK Apple are correctly asking for a court order
before they do anything with the phone but they sometimes do not accept grant
of probate as that court order.

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chrisBob
Apple found a way to make their customers (including potential government
customers) happy, and at the same time they have reduced the number of used
iPhones on the market. This is a win for everyone except people that want an
iPhone but don't want to give Apple money, and no one cares too much about
their opinions.

I want an iPhone, and Apple has a huge financial incentive to make it harder
for me to get a used one. If a used iPhone isn't significantly cheaper then I
will buy a new phone and Apple nets $300 instead of $0.

~~~
LeoNatan25
I don't see what the problem is. Before selling, all I have to do is disable
Find My iPhone and reset all settings on the phone. It is now unlocked and I
can sell it.

~~~
chrisBob
Correct. And this is addressed in the article. The issue is that phones that
are accidentally left locked and returned are junk. Selling a used phone is
always good for business because most people will use the money to buy a new
one. Buying a used phone isn't nearly as good for Apple.

