Apple Using New Strategies To Boost Sluggish iPhone Sales

There have been quite a few reports recently suggesting that Apple’s new iPhones aren’t selling as well as the company might have hoped. A new report points out that Apple is now experimenting with new marketing strategies that it has rarely used before in order to reignite sales of the iPhone. The strategies include generous device buyback terms and even discount promotions.

Bloomberg reports that Apple executives have moved some marketing staff from other projects to focus on improving sales of the iPhone. This happened merely a month after the iPhone XS went on sale and close to the launch of the iPhone XR. A source described the shift as a “fire drill.”

Apple has shifted its strategies for the new iPhones since then. Aggressive trade-in offers have cut down the cost of some new iPhones. This isn’t something that Apple has done quite a bit in the past.

These efforts now seem to have been intensified. There’s a new banner on the top of Apple’s website which advertises the iPhone XR for $449. That’s $300 less than the price that this device was launched at. The asterisk points to one condition: customers have to trade-in an iPhone 7 Plus to get the iPhone XR for this price. The way that this trade-in offer has been presented is itself foreign to many of Apple’s fans who have never seen the company do something like this before.

Whether or not this is actually being done due to slow sales remains to be seen. Apple deciding not to disclose iPhone sales figures going forward won’t be doing much to end speculation. It may just be that the company wants to give the new iPhones a push ahead of the lucrative holiday shopping season.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: iPhone