Technology trade-ins

Tomorrow morning, Apple Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs is expected to unveil the next iteration of his company’s hot-selling iPhone at a gathering of Apple software developers in San Jose.

Not long afterward, a Boston company, Gazelle.com, expects to start receiving an influx of older iPhones. The company will send cash to the former owners, as much as $200 for a high-end model in good condition, and then resell the phones on the auction site eBay.

Gazelle, along with a Lawrence-based rival, NextWorth Solutions Inc., help gadget-craving consumers trade up to the latest and greatest without leaving yesterday’s model moldering in a desk drawer.

“Consumers want the shiny object, the new iPad, but they don’t want to sell the old thing,’’ says Israel Ganot, Gazelle’s chief executive and a Silicon Valley émigré who once worked at eBay and PayPal. “Only about 1 percent of consumer electronics get resold. This is where e-commerce was 15 years ago.’’

Both companies say they’re growing rapidly, raising new funding, and sealing deals with retailers that want to chisel away at consumers’ reluctance to buy new electronics by giving them an in-store credit for bringing in an older device not unlike driving your trade-in to the car dealership. (Gazelle is launching pilots this summer with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Sears.)

Full story: Technology trade-ins – The Boston Globe