If selling your iPhone on eBay ($357!) or great services like Gazelle are too cumbersome, Apple will now accept your used iPhone 4 and pay for it up to two hundred bucks, depending on its condition. Just head over to the Reuse and Recycle program at Apple’s site and hit the Get Started button underneath the “Get an Apple Gift Card for your old device” section.
If your used iPhone 4 manages to fetch a cool $200, congrats – you just secured yourself a 16GB iPhone 4S free of charge (with a two-year contract). As part of yesterday’s reshuffling, the iPhone 4 is now available only with eight gigabytes of storage and priced at just $99. The iPhone 3GS, meanwhile, has gone free. Both older iPhone models require a two-year plan to fetch those prices. Apple is also offering the iPhone 4 and 3GS without a contract commitment for $549 and $375, respectively. What about a SIM-free iPhone 4S?
Apple made no mention of the unlocked version of the iPhone 4S in its press release or during yesterday’s unveiling. The company has traditionally been requiring a contractual commitment for the latest iPhone model in most countries, usually putting out a contract-free variant ahead of a next-generation model. Things have changed with the iPhone 4S, according to this note which clearly mentions both subsidized and SIM-free iPhone 4S. In Canada, for example, Apple’s online store lists the unlocked iPhone 4S for $649. The UK lists SIM-free iPhone 4S for £499, in Germany and France it’s €629 while Australia has it priced at A$ 799. In countries such as Italy the iPhones have been available unlocked alongside their subsidized counterparts for years, stemming from local legislation preventing wireless companies from leveraging the latest handsets in order to sign up consumers into lengthy contracts.
