Apple is reportedly putting the finishing touches on its iPhone trade-in program in its retail stores, and is set to launch it next month. Apple will begin training the majority of its retail employees on the program throughout this week.
This trade-in program will allow customers that own earlier versions of the iPhone, such as the iPhone 4S, to bring the phone into an Apple Store and exchange it for a new iPhone model, like the iPhone 5, at a discounted price…
Apple CEO Tim Cook noted during the company’s last quarterly earnings call that the strategy is not something he would be opposed to, saying, “I see channels doing it, and I like the environmental aspect of it, and so that part of it really is encouraging to me.”
iPhone resellers such as Best Buy, Verizon, and AT&T have been offering trade-in programs for quite a few months.
The iPhone trade-in program is seen by many as a critical piece of Cook’s plan to bolster in-store sales of iPhones. 80% of new iPhones are currently not sold via Apple Retail stores.
By offering a trade-in program, the company offers customers a chance to get a new model iPhone at a discount, and should expose the customers to Apple’s entire ecosystem, including the iPad, and the Mac lineup of computers.
Formal training for retail employees should begin this week, and employees are said to be required to fulfill at least two hours of training. The training must be completed by the first week of September.
9to5Mac’s sources report that Apple has been conducting limited pilot testing for the program in recent months. “According to one person with knowledge of the piloting, a couple of Apple Stores in Texas have internally tested procedures for the trade-in-program.” Sources also report that deliveries of empty shipping boxes have begun arriving at Apple Stores, to be used for the stores to ship traded-in handsets.
A concrete launch date for the iPhone trade-in program has not been announced.
