You Can Now Engrave Your Name on iPad for Free.
But please don’t.
I was about to pre-order the new Apple iPad Air 4. I did not, because the final checkout price after adding all the “necessary” accessories did not make any sense to me. Actually, I might finally order it later, because it is irresistible to be perfectly honest. I feel like iPad Air 4 is just iPad Pro at a lesser price point. If you are planning to buy a second-hand iPad Pro, don’t. Buy iPad Air 4. It is a better deal.
Anyways, what caught my attention while successfully adding the items that I don’t need to the cart is that Apple is offering a chance to engrave your name, or whatever it is that you want to engrave on to your iPad. If you know apple, you would think, “Oh, that’s another 500$”. But hey, you are wrong. Apple is offering it for free! How generous of Apple!
Initially, I thought it was kind of cool too. I thought it was cool to add maybe some iconic one-liner from my favorite movie. But on second thoughts, “Apple, you bloody genius!”
Apple clearly do no want people to buy Apple products from the resale market. Engraving is a beautiful strategy that they have come up with.
Once you engrave any kind of text, I can assure you that the value of that product on the resale market will go down drastically.
If you are a John, you can sell it probably to another John. If you are a John Malkovich and has engraved your full name, good luck with that. Your favorite one-liner is not everyone’s favorite one-liner. Also, people who love the same one-liner need not necessarily be looking to buy a second-hand iPad. Considering all this, your chances of selling your iPad is going to be very slim. That is what Apple wants as well.
I do not blame Apple. They are a profit-based company. They try to sell their products. But to be frank, I think they should have charged the engraving if they really wanted to sound authentic. Not much, maybe a dollar or so. “Another affordable Apple service? Yay!” (We all know that is a lie, more like the only affordable Apple service!)
It does not matter what I think though. Apple has made a very smart move with the engraving option. I don’t have any numbers to support the claim, but I believe that this is going to have some kind of impact when the next iPad version releases. Based on my observation, there are a lot of people who hunt for the previous version of iPad on the resale market when a new version is out. And lucky them, because Apple loyalists have a ‘need’ to own the latest model. At least a fraction of these loyalists will try to sell their old iPads on the second-hand market.
Apple has made their move. It is a deceptive offering on a silver plate that many Apple lovers might fall for. Deceptive or not, as a brand enthusiast, I think is a pretty smart move from Apple. It is subtle. On the surface, it looks like it is offering a lot of value to the buyer.
At the end of the day, it is up to the buyer whether to avail this “free” service by Apple. But if you think that there is a chance that you could be selling your iPad in the future, do not engrave anything on it.
