Apple iPhones are getting very expensive, we’ve been buying used and refurbished 6’s for a few years now. This year, we have a friend who works for Apple and could buy for friends and family with 15% discount from the list prices, which is very nice. Even with the discounts + tax still costs $742 including tax, so we’re not really interested until Apple offered taking trade ins and the 6 plus = $200 and 6s plus = $250. I and my wife both traded in ours and get the XRs.
Apple makes everything so convenient and easy, all I need to do is to bring the phones to the store, pick the new ones up, transfer and erase the old phones, they pay to our debit card right on the spot, no waiting for checks, credit the buyer or anything like that. The one I bought for my wife on Dec 11th, I brought the receipt and her phone Jan 3 and they took the phone and paid without questions.
Apple really makes things easy and intuitive for customers, no wonder their customer base is huge. I read about Pixels 3 and Samsung Android, they’re good but I like iPhone because of their customer service, reliability and secure data network.