Apple sells used products for less in China

Reuters BEIJING--Apple Inc said on Tuesday it had launched an online shop selling secon d-hand Apple products in China, offering discounts of up to 22 percent, as it l ooks to beef up its business in the country. These are products that were previously sold and returned to Apple and have und ergone quality tests, the company's website said. The refurbished products available on Apple's Chinese website ranged from a 308 yuan ($44) iPod shuffle to an iMac computer costing more than 14,000 yuan ($2, 047). "We kicked off the campaign at the end of last year," said Huang Yun a, Apple's spokeswoman in China. She declined to give a figure of total used pr oducts available. Apple has introduced similar deals in other countries, including the Unites Sta tes, the United Kingdom and Japan, for years, but second-hand purchase only mak es up a small portion of its total sales. U.S. retailer Best Buy Co earlier this month started selling refurbished versio ns of Apple iPhone 3G that were priced about $50 less than new ones in an effor t to seek new ways to appeal to cost-conscious shoppers. ($=6.84 yuan).