[hobs]

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.

[mikeash]

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.

[hobs]

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!

[jacalata]

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.