Apple offers buyback discounts worth Rs 34,000 on iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus to boost sales

The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus went on sale in India last month ranging between Rs. 62,000 to Rs 92,000 depending on memory and model. Now less than a month later, Apple has initiated a buyback offer on the new iPhones, giving customer discounts of up to Rs. 34,000, reports Economic Times.

Under the buy back scheme, Apple and its distributors are directly buying back old models in order to ensure genuine transactions. This is the first time Apple and its authorised distributors are closely monitoring the buyback at the retail end to track sales.

The reports says that the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus sales are disappointing and the company is trying to increase the sales of the new iPhones. The Sales are down by 15 to 20 percent compared to last year, as the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were priced Rs 8,500 to Rs 9,000 cheaper at launch, adds the report. 

"This is the first time a company and its distributors are closely monitoring the buyback at the retail end to track sales, showing how desperate Apple is to increase sales in India since it did not expect such a weak launch for the new iPhones," a senior executive with one of the leading trade partners said ET "Earlier companies offering buyback used to give indirect subsidy to retailers to compensate and it was the retailer's headache to sell the old phone, but this time the entire process is driven by Apple," he further added.

Ingram Micro, one of Apple’s distributors in India, has rolled out the buyback scheme in a handful of Apple stores and multi-brand retail chains in South India, which will subsequently be taken national. Apple's other three distributors will also follow suit since the US company wants to achieve its target of trebling sales during the October-December quarter over last year.

The buyback price of Rs 34,000 on the new iPhones, applies only to the iPhone upgraders and not those who are switching over from an Android device. Apple India will also buyback selected hi-end Samsung handsets as well. Retailers can upload details of the old handsets for the offer on a separate website made by Apple.

Since last week, the iPhones are being sold at a 7-11 percent discount on online shopping sites like Snapdeal, Amazon and Flipkart. The discounts are aimed at helping Apple accelerate adoption of their new iPhones in the country, which is relevant during the Diwali buying season.

The new iPhones are a worthy upgrade in terms of performance and features, it's just the expensive price tag that are keeping the buyers away from it.

To recap, Apple's iPhone 6s and Iphone 6s Plus have 4.7-inch (1334 x 750 pixels) and 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) displays, respectively with new 3D Touch technology which senses the pressure you apply to the display to offer different actions. They are equipped with A9 processor with M9 motion co-processor with 2GB RAM. For imaging, there is 12-megapixel iSight camera with 4K video recording support and 5-megapixel front facing camera with Retina Flash. It runs on the latest iOS 9, packs Qualcomm MDM9634M LTE Cat. 6 modem for faster LTE speeds and support for 23 LTE bands.