They'd be limiting themselves to the US and a couple other countries (still not in Canada) thus any credit card would do.
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Apple Developing Hardware Subscription Service for iPhones and Other Devices
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The beautiful thing about this program is it allows Apple to eat the margins from the secondary market.
They would love to be the intermediary when you sell your iPhone on Craigslist or Facebook. When you subscribe to an iPhone, you have no choice but to return the device or continue paying.
Not if Klaus Schwab and BlackRock have any say in it.
You would pay ~$2500 every ~2 years (2500/90 = 28 months) to get a device that costs ~$2500 and not own it?
T-Mobile has a similar program and will buy-out your AT&T account up to a certain dollar value.
This is what my father called 'on the never, never'. You never stop paying and you never own it. This is how we got our first TV back around '59. We had the same set for years and only stopped when he worked out that he'd bought it three times over with the rental payments.
That was a lesson that is still with me to this day. Apple can go take a hike if this becomes the only way to obtain their products.
most businesses just lease computer equipment...
Imagine paying 2gs upfront and then flipping the MacBook on eBay in 2 years for $1300…
I’m only seeing a benefit if you upgrade and sell your devices whenever a new model comes out. If you tend to keep and use your devices for a few years, this is just a waste of money.
Mortgages, car leases, American health care, etc.
It's pretty pretty common for people to pay monthly for what they cannot afford to buy in cash. For some it's a home, for others, it's a phone or a computer for their kid to do school work.
This is why Apple gave you the Reminders app, so you can cancel before the next renewal. ?
I upgrade my iPhone Pro Max every year, reselling for ≈$900 and paying ≈$1200 (including tax). So if this program costs less than $300/year to lease an iPhone with automatic upgrades (not to mention lower installments), it’s very compelling to me. The iPhone Upgrade Program only gives you 50% of your original purchase back, and that’s assuming you upgrade after exactly 12 months (which isn’t a given, since launches have been delayed before, or maybe you didn’t want to wake up at 5 a.m. to preorder).
WATCH resells for a lot less than its original price, so this could work out even better. Plus, I’d imagine this would come with automatic Care+ since Apple would want to protect their hardware, which they’d still own.
Don’t conflate financing with renting or a subscription. When you finance something for X years, you eventually own an asset worth Y dollars. When you rent or subscribe to something for X years, you eventually own no asset which of course has a value of $0.
I can’t wait to see how they spin this as “environmentally friendly”
Computers are depreciating assets. Their value also decreases in time very quickly. This program will be targeted for those who upgrade every year to the latest model.
Those are pretty much the only people who will find value in such a program, the frequent upgraders. It’s more cost effective to use the device over its useful service life, rather than upgrade to the new shiny every year.
"This would be ideal for customers who do not have the funds to buy an expensive iPhone, iPad, or Mac up front, but who can afford a monthly price for the device."
This is oxymoronic, perfect for morons.
If you can afford a monthly fee to rent an iPhone, you can afford to buy the iPhone.
It's this insane mentality that convinces idiots to rent furniture.
This is oxymoronic, perfect for morons.
If you can afford a monthly fee to rent an iPhone, you can afford to buy the iPhone.
It's this insane mentality that convinces idiots to rent furniture.
Consumers: We want to own the software just like we do the hardware.
Corporations: What we are hearing is you want ownership of software and hardware to be the same.
Corporations: What we are hearing is you want ownership of software and hardware to be the same.
Subscription, lease; call it what you will, but this will never be the economical way to own a device. It's brilliant on the part of Apple because they sell more product. This is directly taken from the automotive industry. I know people will not see the disadvantages and they'll be paying too much.
The automotive just used it as a means to jack up the prices massively as all anyone cares about is their monthly payment and had no hope in hell of being able to own the car at the end of the agreement.