Smart phone owners of Apple's iPhone 5 units who have experienced defective or intermittent sleep/ wake button can already find salvation to their high-end gadget with the launch of their Replacement Program.

The program is initially launched in U.S. and Canada on Sunday and will be available to the original country of purchase all over the world starting on May 2. It was launched after Apple received customer complaints that they had to press the sleep/wake/power button really hard for it to work or that the button is working intermittently.

Owners of iPhone 5 units manufactured on March 2013 can just follow the following five easy steps to avail of the replacement program.

1. Check first the serial number of your iOS phone which is found out the About portion of the General section under the Settings menu. The serial number can also be found at the back portion of the phone's metal casing. Input the data on the replacement program page to check if the unit is qualified to take advantage of the program

2. For qualified mobile units, keep a backup data on iTunes or iCloud and turn off the Find my iPhone feature of the smart phone unit. Then delete all data and settings by tapping Settings, choose General then choose Reset and tap Erase all Content and Settings. Be sure also to remove the cover or case of the phone and have the unit really ready for the service.

3. For carry-in option, visit the Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider with the defective iPhone 5 unit and get a loan of the 16GB iPhone 5 while the defective unit is under the repair process. According to news report from Mac Rumors, users can even grab the $350 trade in credit for exchanging their defective unit with a new devce.

4. For mail-in option, request for a postage-paid box by calling Apple Customer Support.

5. For those iPhone 5 owners who have already shelled out money for the repair of the defective sleep/wake button, then request for a refund from Apple Customer Support.

Take note that the program runs only up to September 21, 2014 which is two years after the launch of iPhone 5 units in the market. iPhone 5 owners basically have about five months more to take advantage of Apple's iPhone 5 Replacement Program.

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