Apple announced on Tuesday a USB adapter trade in program after reports emerged last month that a 23-year-old woman from Xinjiang was electrocuted when she answered her iPhone that was being charged with a third party charger and a Beijing man was put in a coma when he plugged in his iPhone with another third party charger. The focus of speculation and much discussion was whether the charger, the victim used was a genuine Apple adapter or not.
According to Apple: Recent reports have suggested that some counterfeit and third party adapters may not be designed properly and could result in safety issues. While not all third party adapters have an issue, we are announcing a USB Power Adapter Takeback Program to enable customers to acquire properly designed adapters.
The adapter program will be for a limited amount of time from August 16th till October 18th. The exchange will only be for iPhones, iPads and iPods power adapters. The exchange will include third party adapters even old adapters that were bought in an Apple store and authorized Apple reseller stores.
The Apple store in Sanlitun confirmed that they would be participating in this program with some clarifications: you can purchase one Apple USB power adapter at a special price of RMB 68 if you bought a third party one; a free adapter exchange if you bought at the Apple store, have a receipt and the serial number checks out and The special pricing on the USB power adapters is limited to one adapter for each iPhone, iPad, and iPod you own.
The other stores around Beijing as well as China will also be part of this worldwide program. The full list of stores can be found on Apple’s website.
Photos courtesy of ‘biz mac’ Flickr
