Apple is expected to host a press event in on September 10 in order to unveil the next installment in its flagship smartphone family, the iPhone 5S. Now, the company is launching an iPhone trading program in order to gear up for the announcement.
According to MacRumors, Apple has part of a deal with Brightstar will give customers a way to recycle their old iPhones in order to drive upgrades to newer models. Once recycled, people will be given instant credit to put toward the new iPhone 5S.
According to reports, the old iPhones will be refurbished and sold in emerging markets, this will push down the cost of the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 while not cannibalizing the sales of the new device for Apple.
Apple has reportedly sent materials to its stores in order to get employees prepared for the program's beginning. The first line of employees reporting for training will do so as early as today, if the rumors are in fact true. The idea is to have these pre-trained employees teach the initiative to other workers over the course of the next week.
There is currently no word on an exact date for when the company would implement this system. Having said that, it makes the most sense for them to begin offering it to customers as soon as they offer the iPhone 5S to customers on Sept. 10.
In addition to the iPhone 5S, the company will likely begin selling the low-cost iPhone C, a plastic-backed version of the iPhone 5 that will come in different colors and act as the cheaper cousin to the flagship smartphone from Apple. The company hopes this will allow them to replace older versions of the iPhone, like the 4, 4S and 5, as being the lower-end iOS devices with the iPhone C. This would be another reason to give incentive to users to trade in their older iPhone models.
