Apple Canada wants Ingram Micro to stop providing Wind with used iPhones

Wind Mobile started selling “lightly loved” iPhones on June 25th. This addition to its lineup brought Wind the promise to dramatically increase its subscriber base by offering customers low-cost, refurbished iPhones.

The wireless carrier does not list the source of its iPhone inventory, but the Globe and Mail reveals a battle has started between Apple Canada and Ingram Micro. According to the report, Apple states that Ingram has breached its contract and has requested the supplier to stop providing Wind with refurbished iPhones.

“Ingram’s interpretation of the contract was that the distribution of used iPhones was not a breach and it expressed concern about cutting off Wind’s supply of the device, but ultimately said it wanted to co-operate with Apple,” said the report.

Apparently the request for Ingram to stop providing used iPhones might have been started by Bell, who was “upset about Wind being able to access the Apple product.” According to sources, Ingram agreed to provide Wind Mobile with 50,000 used iPhones.

Alek Krstajic, Wind Mobile CEO, said, “I understand Apple has reached out to Ingram and is trying to stop them from giving us the iPhone. I’ve also heard that Bell has reached out to both Apple and Ingram again trying to stop them from supplying iPhones to Canadians who need them through Wind.”

Bell spokesperson Mark Langton, stated, “we became aware that resale iPhones were available in the Canadian market… When we investigated to determine whether we could also sell them, Apple made clear our agreement prevented us from doing so. We spoke to Apple and Ingram only about the possibility of Bell also selling resale phones.”

Wind Mobile is currently selling the 16GB iPhone 5s for $499 and the 16GB iPhone 5c $399. The wireless carrier has over 800,000 subscribers and revealed during a recent interview with MobileSyrup that it had over 25,000 iPhone customers.

[source] Globe [/source]