Battery replacements - UK at least
I got my 6S and my wife's SE (both 3 years old phones) batteries swapped out last week under the £25 deal.
Every slot was taken right up to the end of the deal period, and talking to the staff in the Apple Store (Kingston, UK), the replacement scheme had been extremely popular.
If that is representative then people are not perceiving that the new phones add significant value and their older iPhones still work fine, so £25 to restore performance and battery life is a no-brainer (as is the post-deal £79 replacement price to be honest) compared to the cost of the XR now that the SE is gone.
However, the cheaper battery scheme has at least kept people in the Apple services (iCloud, iTunes etc.) universe so will have been a worthwhile investment for APple in that respect (notwithstanding the inertial effects if you have several iDevices in your household).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
