It’s been all but confirmed that Gamestop is on the cusp of selling iOS devices alongside the other gaming systems it typically stocks. According to various sources the retailer will be carrying the full suite of iOS devices, meaning you can trade in your iPhone 4 for the iPhone 5 at the same place where you’re pressured to pre-order every mildly popular game coming out in the next three years. While it seems inevitable that Gamestop is going to jump aboard the iOS train, there are numerous reasons why they should just stay out of the fray. Let’s go through just a few of them.
Gamestop Knows Nothing About Wireless Plans
If Gamestop is indeed planning to sell the iPhone 5 (or any iPhone for that matter), aren’t they going to need to set up customers with a wireless plan as well? The device is pretty useless without an AT&T or Verizon voice, text and data plan attached, and that’s not exactly an arena where Gamestop employees are trained to advise customers. Some of these employees aren’t even that good at making game recommendations, how on earth can they be expected to cogently point out the pros and cons of various long-term phone contracts?
Of course the other option would be for Gamestop to sell the hardware but send customers to another outlet to secure their service contract. But if that’s the case, why not just buy the phone elsewhere as well? If Gamestop is just going to send users across the street to Best Buy to activate their phone, why go to Gamestop at all?
Apple Devices Don’t Depreciate In Value the Same Way as Games
It’s said that Gamestop is already accepting trade-ins for old iOS devices, but prices to this point are a closely guarded secret. One of the biggest knocks on Gamestop has always been the fact that it offers customers insultingly low amounts for trade-ins only to turn around and mark up the same product an extreme amount. It’s not at all unusual to trade in a game at Gamestop and get less than $10, only to see used copies of the same game on sale for $35. It’s wildly unfair to consumers, but so long as people keep trading in their games there’s no pressure for Gamestop to change its policies.
The tricky bit is the fact that iOS device owners are going to expect more for their machines. A used iPhone for can still fetch roughly $400, and even original iPads still sell for over $350. We don’t expect Gamestop to offer even nearly that much for old electronics, so it’s hard to believe consumers will be willing to part with their machines for significantly lower prices. Gamestop can get away with their game trade-ins due to the fact that they’re small-scale transactions and few people really care about getting an extra $5 or $10 for a used copy of Duke Nukem Forever. That changes when it comes to iOS and potentially hundreds of dollars of lost income.
Gamestop Has No Control Over iOS Software
The single biggest reason Gamestop sells consoles is because they can then also turn around and sell the games that play on those machines. It’s already well established that the bulk of the company’s profits come from used game sales, and they also procure a tidy sum from new games as well. However, they can’t make this same money from iOS simply due to the fact that all app sales take place in the digital space of the App Store. Hardware sales are the least lucrative aspect of Gamestop’s current business model, and yet they’re going to start carrying products where all they’ll ever sell is hardware. The only way Gamestop stands to make any money at all on software is by also selling iTunes gift cards, but how much of a retail stream does that honestly create?
It’s pretty clear that Gamestop sees iOS as an opportunity to make a quick buck of some lazy or otherwise uninformed consumers, but this is one part of the business where the retailer clearly doesn’t belong. There’s no reason to buy an iPod, iPhone or iPad from Gamestop, and we doubt there ever will be.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Add Comment