Bloomberg reports that Apple will sell iPhones and iPads as part of a hardware subscription service. Apple is planning to move towards subscription services in general as early as next year with this service. Apple has been pushing users to purchase its various subscription services, including Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple News Plus, Apple Fitness Plus, and Apple Arcade, which are major revenue sources for Apple. Apple One subscription plans to bundle these services together as well.
Apple introduced AppleCare extended warranties on a monthly subscription basis back in 2019. Since 2015, Apple has also offered the iPhone Upgrade Program, which allows customers to pay for AppleCare and an iPhone jointly over 24 months, plus an option to trade in the device after 12 months.
Bloomberg reports that the monthly installment won’t be the price of the device divided by 12 or 24 months, instead, it will be an undecided monthly cost, possibly with an option to upgrade to new hardware as it becomes available. Apple would tie this subscription to a user’s existing Apple ID account, probably with a bundle option for AppleCare and Apple One as well. Users can currently pay monthly for Apple services and monthly installments for iPhones, but not both together. Users must handle both separately.
Apple’s monthly phone loan program is quite intriguing. It’s like subscribing to Apple TV or Music. I am curious to see if customers are willing to invest months of capital in a device. That is only to return it at the end of the period. Apple may be planning to cut out the middleman and extend its installment-based billing to other products.
