In a concession to the slower economy’s grip on consumers’ pocketbooks, the United States’ largest electronics retailer reportedly said today that it’s selling used versions of Apple Inc.’s iPhone (News - Alert) 3G.

 

Best Buy Co. told Reuters (News - Alert) that it would sell devices priced about $50 less than new iPhones, such as the one shown below.

 

Scott Moore, vice president of marketing for Best Buy Mobile, reportedly told Retuers that the refurbished iPhones had been returned within 30 days of purchase.

 

“This is focusing on customers’ needs, trying to provide as wide a range of products and networks for our consumers,” Moore told the news service.

 

While new iPhone 3Gs sell for $199 and $299 at Best Buy stores for the 8-gigabyte and 16-gigabyte models, respectively, the used devices will go for $149 and $249.

The re-focus on saving customers’ money marks a turn for Richfield, Minnesota-based Best Buy that other consumer electronics industries are seeing.

 

As TMCnet reported, exhibitors at the International Consumer Electronics Show this week are focusing more on reserving meeting-room space to make connections with customers than on physical showroom floor booths.

 

“That fits with a cooler economic climate,” according to The Associated Press. “The booths are chapels to conspicuous consumption where companies one-up each other with bigger and badder gadgets, like the 150-inch plasma TV Panasonic (News - Alert) Corp. displayed last year.”

 

It was less than a year ago that Best Buy announced that it was joining with the United Kingdom’s largest mobile phone retailer to open its first-ever stores in Europe in a $2.15 billion venture.

 

Best Buy said its 50-50 collaboration with Carphone Warehouse (News - Alert) Group Plc. would yield 2,400 retail stores in nine European nations. Starting in the United Kingdom, Best Buy said it would enter the European market under its own name in 2009, under the deal, presenting a challenge to a market led by retailers such as PC World, Currys and Dixons.

 

Things have changed since then.

 

Last month, Best Buy announced that its earnings per share had fallen from 53 cents to 13 cents year-over-year for the quarter ended Nov. 29.

 

“The reduction in third-quarter earnings was due in large part to a non-operating impairment charge of $111 million ($93 million net of tax, or $0.22 per diluted share), related to a significant and sustained decline in the market price of the company’s nearly 3 percent stake in the common shares outstanding of The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC,” officials said.

 

Meanwhile, Moore reportedly told Reuters today that buyers of first-generation iPhones can also upgrade to the faster refurbished 3G models at the store.

 

AT&T (News - Alert), the exclusive wireless provider for the iPhone, also offers refurbished iPhones online.