Amazon has sold Apple products in the past, but these were from third party retailers. Some were overstock, and sold at a lower price than Apple permits from their retailers. These may also be refurbished items, which retailers may have repaired themselves, not through Apple’s refurbishing process. Some refurbishes may have done poor jobs, or may still sell broken devices. Other retailers may sell knockoff goods, a surprisingly common occurrence on Amazon.
Apple finally decided to step in and forge a deal with Amazon. Soon, you’ll be able to buy iPads, iPhones, Apple Watches, and Beats products through Amazon, knowing they’re coming directly from Apple or Apple-approved third party retailers. In fact, as part of the deal, third party retailers will no longer be permitted to sell new or refurbished Apple products, a move that could hurt small businesses.
In This Article:
Apple and Amazon Working Together
Soon, when you search for an iPad or iPhone on Amazon, you know you’ll find a legitimate, Apple-approved reseller of the product. It won’t be a scam, it won’t be a sketchy place, it won’t have spyware pre-installed. That’s because the products that Apple has approved for sale on Amazon will be from Apple or authorized Apple retailers.
You can already find a few Macs on Amazon, organized in a confusing fashion, as well as Apple adapters and other small products. It’s hard to tell what’s valid, what items are actually Apple products, and which aren’t. One thing is for certain, none of the products available now are directly from Apple, though some may be from Apple authorized retailers.
You can see how this is confusing, right?
Apple hates having their products associated with any confusion. That’s why you’ll soon be able to find the iPhone XR, iPhone XS and XS Max, Apple Watch Series 4, and the entire Beats lineup on Amazon. Amazon won’t sell the HomePod though, as it competes with their Echo devices. These will be sold through Amazon, but fulfilled by Apple or an Apple authorized retailer. Amazon will cut down on all the Apple retailers on their site. Soon, if you buy an Apple product from Amazon, you’ll know it’s genuine.
Effect on Small Businesses and the Environment
A refurbished MacBook Pro for sale on Amazon.
You can find Apple products on Amazon right now, including refurbished ones. Yes, this does mean that you might not know exactly where they’re coming from, or the conditions of the products, but they’re often available at lower prices than you can get from Apple. Take the 2014 MacBook Pro above. Sure, it’s 4 years old, but it’s still a respectable computer. My work computer is one of these, and I still like it. Plus, this was the last model that didn’t require an array of adapters and dongles.
So, let’s say you want a MacBook Pro, but can’t put down $3,000. Maybe a 4 year old MacBook Pro is exactly what you need. So, you find a refurbished on on Amazon in pretty good condition for $750. Great, right? But where did it come from?
Refurbishing for Profit
When I was in college, I was broke. Not much has changed since then, though I can blame more of that on my own poor decision making now. So, I got a job in the IT department. It was a good fit for me, a computer science major, and I got a chance to play with a lot of computers, something I really enjoyed.
Beyond your normal setting up computers or reinstalling operating systems, I also got to sit in the workshop with all the broken computers. One of my favorite tasks was to use all the spare parts to make working machines. This computer has a bad hard drive? Well this one has a bad motherboard. Swap the hard drive from one into the other, add more memory, and we’ve salvaged a computer. Now we could sell or donate it.
This is a profitable business for some, and a fun one too, if you like tech and fixing things. You go to a recycler and buy a broken MacBook Pro, saving it from an industrial shredder. You figure out what’s wrong with it, fix it, clean it up, erase and reformat the hard drive, and reinstall macOS on it. You buy it for, say, $300, put $150 and 2 hours of work into it, and sell it for $650. The customer gets a computer on the cheap, you made a profit, and a computer that may have ended up in a landfill instead finds a new loving home. Everyone wins!
A Dark Side of Refurbishing for Profit
Of course, there are problems here. If you’re buying a product that hasn’t been certified by Apple, the refurbisher may have used non-Apple parts, which may not work right. They could have also installed spyware on it, so, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you could end up giving them all your information (always erase and reformat a refurbished device first!). The person who fixed it may have believed they finished the job, but you could run into problems down the road. These are problems Apple wants to avoid. When you use a Mac, your experience should be perfect. But if it’s not an Apple certified Mac, they can’t guarantee that.
Balance?
“You are receiving this message because you are currently selling, or have previously sold, Apple or Beats products. Your existing offers for those products will soon be removed from Amazon’s online store in the United States. Please contact Apple if you would like to apply to become an authorized reseller on Amazon.”
– From an email sent to resellers, emphasis added
There’s a balance to be reached here. Refurbishers and resellers can go through Apple to get appropriate certification, then continue to sell their products. In fact, in emails Amazon sent to those who have sold Apple products online, the company suggests just that. Now, though, you’ll know you can trust the products you find online. The certification process may require using Apple parts, which can be more expensive, sometimes for no reason. Some products, such as cables or solid state drives, will work from nearly any manufacturer, and don’t need to be Apple certified parts. This means sellers will have to increase their prices or cut into their profits. Apple can also limit the types of repairs resellers can do, limiting the number of products they can sell.
It’s a balance though. That certification will bring better peace of mind to their customers. Perhaps they’ll even be able to sell more products than they were able to otherwise, making up for smaller profits by increasing sales. If it’s not right, refurbishers will likely head to eBay, where they’ll find far fewer sales than they could find on Amazon. Truly, their best option will be certification, an investment that will hopefully pay off, despite heavy limitations.
Rollout Starts Now
Amazon will roll out new Apple products in their U.S., U.K., French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and Indian stores in the coming weeks. In January of 2019, Amazon will pull all non-certified Apple product resellers from the site. Many of these resellers will head to eBay, while others will seek out certification from Apple. As a customer, you can expect a better Apple buying experience on Amazon. Though those who bring you those products may have to work harder to get them to you. Which—really—is the truth of all products on Amazon, isn’t it?
Sources:
- Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge
- Jason Koebler, Motherboard
- Ben Fox Rubin, CNET