Apple is pushing pre-paid and month-to-month plans for iPhones

Apple is preparing to enhance its Apple Store-based iPhone sales operations in the United States around pre-paid and month-to-month plans in order boost sales, according to a source briefed on the upcoming initiatives. For the first time in U.S. Apple Stores, customers will be able to purchase an iPhone at full-price and then connect the phone to a pre-paid plan or a month-to-month plan within the store. Previously, iPhone customers could only buy full-priced iPhones as unlocked devices then connect the devices to pre-paid plans or month-to-month plans via a previously purchased SIM-card or through a carrier store. Now that these plans will be available through Apple Stores, customers will be hooked into the store which exposes them to Apple’s other products. Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook told Apple Retail Store managers that bolstered iPhone sales numbers in stores are critical as the iPhone is Apple’s “gateway” product to other devices. Later this year, Apple will debut a wrist-worn wearable device that interacts with an iPhone, so increasing iPhone sales in Apple’s own stores is critical to the growth of that new product category. Cook previously said that only 20% of iPhones are sold in Apple Stores, but recent initiatives have boosted that number considerably over the past 12 months.