Chinese customers view Apple recycling plan as April Fools' Day prank

Apple's trade-in recycling plan is regarded by many Chinese Apple fans as an April Fool's joke for the surprisingly low depreciation prices offered.

Recently, Apple Inc. announced its recycling program for iPhones and iPads for China's mainland market, enabling customers to trade in their old devices bought via official channels for the latest Apple products.

The move, however, has triggered heated discussion among local customers due to controversial depreciation prices that are much lower than those on the local second hand market.

Apple users would be offered 250 yuan ($40.35) for an iPhone 4, 500 yuan for an iPhone 4S and 1,500 yuan for an iPhone 5S should they take part in the in-store recycling program.

Shanghai Morning Post discovered that an old 16GB-storage iPhone 4S sold for 1,100 yuan and an old 16GB-storage iPhone 5S for 2,900 yuan this month via a local used phone recycling website, respectively 600 yuan and 1,400 yuan higher than the depreciation prices offered by Apple.

In China's used phone market, first generation Mac products can sell for as high as 20,000 yuan while first generation iPhone products are also highly valued, thanks to Apple fans, according to a newspaper survey.

"Apple's recycling plan is an April Fool's Day prank; we might as well sell our old phones on the second-hand market," one netizen commented after hearing about the low prices.

Some netizens even joked that the fifth generation iPhone is almost as expensive as five bags of apples.

As for the huge price spread, one Apple staff member explained that the company had to take into consideration the possibility that it might receive useless old phones as they use only six evaluation indexes, while old phone markets have more control over the products they take in as these make use of more specific indicators.

Overseas, Apple is expanding the requirements for items that could be recycled; Blackberries, Androids and Windows Phones are all included in its plan abroad.