Apple Resorts to Promo Deals, Trade-Ins to Boost iPhone Sales

Apple Inc. is experimenting with iPhone marketing strategies it rarely uses -- such as discount promotions via generous device buyback terms -- to help goose sales of its flagship product.

Company executives moved some marketing staff from other projects to work on bolstering sales of the latest handsets in October, about a month after the iPhone XS went on sale and in the days around the launch of the iPhone XR, according to a person familiar with the situation. This person described it as a "fire drill," and a possible admission that the devices may have been selling below some expectations. The person asked not to be identified discussing private strategy changes.