Apple's plans to sell refurbished iPhones in India rejected: Report

India has reportedly rejected Apple’s request to import and sell used iPhones in the country.The application by the US company has been rejected, a telecommunications industry official told Bloomberg. India is the second largest phone market and Apple has only 2 percent market share here. Now, with slump in global shipments and slowing China market, the company is looking for inroutes to sell its devices in India, which are priced too high for the price concious Indian market. This is the reason why the company plans on bringing used or refurbished devices that can be sold at lower prices. This means the new decision comes as a huge setback for Apple. The company’s rivals have a campaign against Apple’s request as it could mean making way to a slew of used electronics into the country, which will hamper the Make in India initiative. Afterall, the motive of Make in India is to encourage local manufacturing, which will then be replaced by some used and probably older models of the iPhone selling at cheaper prices. In fact, such a request of used goods was also rejected by the environment ministry in 2015, adds the report. “Its iPhone Upgrade Program in the United States gave the company a plentiful supply of used phones that it could have sold at much lower prices in India without sacrificing margin, which must have seemed like the perfect plan,” a 9To5Mac report points out. To woo emerging markets, Apple recently launched a ‘cheaper’ iPhone SE in India, but looks like the device is preferred by developed markets instead.