Hi there, as a former phone support/trainer for apple support, people definitely buy things repeatedly!
I had one customer who thought each phone was effectively a burner, and he threw them out when he got a new one.
He also made sure the apple store activated his phone (before all went that way) as he thought it was useless to have a computer with the phone (because why was he buying the phone then?).
This story and many like it popped up again and again until I realized that the majority of users are completely ignorant of even the smallest details of how the device or its internals work, its is mostly a fashion statement.
Surely the Apple Store would set up the new phone with his existing Apple ID, though? Even if they didn't, most people only have one e-mail address (that they know of?) and so will be forced into using the same account again whether they like it or not.
Just like the commenter at the same level, many times the customer would not bring in their previous phone and have little to no idea about what their email address even was.
The apple store will definitely attempt to gather that info, but at some point it is new account and have a great day!
You can create a new email address in the setup wizard. I know of people who set it up there and literally don't understand what they did, and don't attempt to remember it.
Somebody gave one of my students a fairly (< 1yr old) new laptop the other day because they got it loaded up with viruses, (virii?) There is a market segment with more money than brains, it is large.
In Latin, "virus" is a mass noun, like "stuff", "water", or "poison", its original meaning. There is no attested plural. Being of originally Greek origin doesn't help matters.
In English, there's never a reason to use anything other than "viruses".
Actually, virus is a "mass noun" (uncountable) and has no plural. If it ever had a nominative plural it would be vira, and out of anything, viri is its genitive singular.
I don't see how (a) one example of stupidity is representative for the populace at large and (b) how this particular example is relevant at all.
If one person is ignorant in one domain, that doesn't mean that person doesn't excel in another domain. Stupidity is relative.
E.g. my father can't use a computer and thinks his computer is broken whenever he has minor problems with it. On the other hand he has a perfect track record in managing government institutions and the family's business and he's also extremely good at handling money and being a cheap bastard. He never learned to use a computer simply because he can delegate such tasks to his subordinates (or me).
And yet you've placed him in the bucket of people with more money than brains, simply because somebody on this planet sold his computer because it was virused.
I had one customer who thought each phone was effectively a burner, and he threw them out when he got a new one. He also made sure the apple store activated his phone (before all went that way) as he thought it was useless to have a computer with the phone (because why was he buying the phone then?).
This story and many like it popped up again and again until I realized that the majority of users are completely ignorant of even the smallest details of how the device or its internals work, its is mostly a fashion statement.