Galaxy phone trade-in values worse because iPhones launch earlier

The one thing that we know for sure in the smartphone trade-in market is that the Apple event in September really shakes things up.

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Google harshly punishes Pixel resellers, ultimately lifts ‘digital death penalty’

Never doubt the power of a viral news story these days. While some believe fabricated reports can sway momentous presidential elections, even legit ones tackling topics as mundane as tax loopholes used to make small profits off the unauthorized reselling of Pixel phones will occasionally rock pretty big boats.

In this case, Google’s cabin cruiser, pushing on towards record box-office mobile hardware numbers. The search giant very quietly and controversially decided to crack down on (mild) fraud attempts recently, effectively sentencing a group of its Terms of Service violators to “digital death.” No public trial, no warning, no nothing.

Granted, these people probably deserved some form of e-punishment, apparently purchasing Pixels “on behalf of a reseller, who then marked-up the cost of those devices in order to resell them to other customers.” But surely, locking them all out of their Google accounts was a gross overreaction.

We’re not just talking Google Store or Play Store access here, but total and complete lockdown from services as diverse as general cloud storage, email, personal pics and videos saved in Google Photos, and much more.

Apparently, “many of the accounts suspended were created for the sole purpose of this scheme”, though after reviewing the alleged fraudsters’ appeals, as well as getting flak all over the interwebs, Big G reversed its harsh initial call, letting everyone off with a warning.

Both sides have plenty to learn here, as Google needs to think long and hard before cutting people off from their connected lives again, while everyone else has to understand device reselling rules are made to be followed.

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