Apple is prepping a hardware subscription service for iPhones and other devices, Bloomberg News reports on Thursday citing “people with knowledge of the matter.”
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg news:
The service would be Apple’s biggest push yet into automatically recurring sales, allowing users to subscribe to hardware for the first time — rather than just digital services. But the project is still in development, said the people, who asked not to identified because the initiative hasn’t been announced.
Apple is expected to implement hardware subscriptions by the end of 2022 or 2023.
MacDailyNews Take: Finally!
As we wrote in September 2019 here and here:
$99 per month gets you an iPhone and every Apple service. Presented like that, it’d be insanely irresistible. And every “new to iPhone” customer will immediately and irrevocably be steeped in Apple’s Hotel California ecosystem… We bet if Apple offered iPhones along with services bundled into one monthly fee – offer tick boxes for Apple TV+, Apple News+, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, iCloud Storage, etc. – they’d have a winning sales strategy (Apple Prime) on their hands!
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Shop The Apple Store at Amazon.
This disgusts me. When subscriptions dominate, it’s a sign of slowing intellectual prowess and growing consumer laziness. Insurance companies live high and long on this type of income…w/o providing innovation…just a net that comforts the mind.
Apple continues to build company gestalt that pushes this customer away. Because Cook is at the helm, I give him the “credit.”
MDN; “finally?” Wtf.
“You’ll own nothing and be happy.” So say the Great Reset f**ktards.
This better be a plan to OWN your phone and devices, NOT rent them.
Otherwise YOU are slave who owns NOTHING except the contempt of Hillary Clinton and f**ktards like John Gruber.
great idea. it’s also a precursor to the Apple Car as a subscription service.
DOA, never do subscriptions of, hardware or software….
Adobe can go f themselves and their subscriptions. Same with Apple
Actually, Hal, Adobe is a corporation so technically, it cannot For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge itself.
You however make the great example of an opinionated fuckup.
Nobody gives a flying fuck about libturd opinions You are just a libturd, Try to remember that.
Hal doesn’t have a clue. Why is he here? To show how illogical the trumptards are. Always flying off the handle without a shred of evidence.
“Russia Russia Russia Ukraine Ukraine Ukraine”.
Oh wait. After three investigations, there was evidence.
Evidence that for four years, Democrats lied about, well, everything.
Oh wait. That wasn’t evidence. That was proven.
I can own a top phone for $1100 or pay $1200 a year to rent????
WTH? Apple wants to rent phones now? Your renting apps, music, movies, Now Macs and phones. They want to keep ownership and CONTROL while sucking money out of you for your soul. They use to be a Open company now it’s all blood sucking.
Tim Cook, Steve’s worst mistake!!
Tim Cook, cooking the books!
While I can agree with some of the comments people are posting, I also see the other size from a specific consumer side. “Renting” or a subscription for a phone would not be an option for me. Hell, I pay cash for my phones now and don’t put them on a payment plan. So a subscription phone is not for me. Especially because I tend to keep my phone a few years anyways. However, there are A LOT of people this makes total sense to them because they can’t buy the phone outright. My son worked at a Cell phone store and a majority of their customers are on payment plans anyways and just keep going further and further in debt with each phone. Especially when they break them.
Also, for much of the younger generation, they think making payments is just normal. Most will always have a car payment, they tell me that. Many of them just lease cars. So, rent or house payments, cars, TV subscriptions, and phone payments or subscriptions are just normal, everyday life to them.
Saving money…whatever….actually owning something…..who cares……
It’s not my cup of tea but then again, I will actually get to retire someday and I kind of like saving money, not paying interest on things, and actually owning something. I guess I’m just an old fashioned boomer. But Apple should do this. There is a certain percentage of customers that need this.
Payment plan for eventual ownership (if so desired) and subscription in a way I understand are oceans apart. A hardware subscription is the Apple’s way of saying a lease ….No?
If I am not mistaken, what apple sell are essentially a series of gadgets, not cars or aircrafts.
If leasing, you already know what’s coming next from Apple, a price jack-up.
KenT – You’re the only one so far who gets this. This is a lease option (if it actually takes place). Leasing a car seems a terrible idea to me, but I like to keep a car for eight to 10 years, but millions of people choose to lease. I guess this will be the same thing, only an order of magnitude cheaper…
WriterGuy and KenT can see a need also. So, taking your “lease” option into account, say similar to cars, why do people and companies lease? Companies lease most of the time because there are tax advantages and no upfront expenses to leasing. Most individuals who lease do so because they just want a new car with warranty and know they will get a new one every two to three years. Right?!
Would this not all be the same if we applied it to a phone? Think about a business and what this might mean to them if they buy phones for their staff. Zero to minimal upfront costs, tax benefits, support, warranty, new phones for staff every two years?
Those here who can’t see a possible need for something like this are only thinking about themselves. I get that but, that’s not how you think if you own a business.
“You will own nothing, And you’ll Happy!” (courtesy of the WEF)
Is this a promise or a command?
https://archive.org/details/world-economic-forum-presents-the-great-reset-youll-own-nothing-and-youll-be-happy.
All I want is an iPhone and iCloud storage. That’s it. I will never purchase any other service from Apple, not needed and not worth the cost.
and iCloud remains a questionable value.
notice how Apple isn’t willing to tell how many people want to pay for iCloud rental. reality is Apple hardware prices are jacked up to subsidize the stupid cloud whether you want it or not.
“…there are A LOT of people this makes total sense to them because they can’t buy the phone outright….”
Maybe they shouldn’t be buying $1k phones?? Especially when on welfare or getting food stamps.
Hal jumps to conclusions.
Who cares what Hal thinks you should own? A reasonable person would realize that freedom means choosing our own priorities. Hal trots out the most ridiculous stereotype to expose his foul attitude. Ignore what a dipshit like him thinks. There are many ways a person can economize.
You know who actually likes renting everything? Businesses. Tune in later to read how Hal hates them too.
Wtf are you on? There is a concept called “thinking.” You really should try it sometime
WWIII is coming, you can lease it or own it. Won’t be no phone to buy though, the air will be thick with radiation and you’ll be dead. Vlad and Xi will OWN their Pyrrhic victories but the USA will sadly be ash.
Sad. Don’t let it happen, America! Don’t let this future come. Under Biden, this is the way, sadly.
You’re nothing more than a fear mongering, hate peddler. You are welcome to your views, as am I. But, wouldn’t you like to be correct in your assessment? You can espouse the innumerable reams of evidence that supports your claim, but said evidence never comes to light. Show the world your proof, not your hearsay. There is no such thing as “alternative facts”. It violates the definition of facts.
If only you could have included Founding Fathers, sexuality, human freedom of movement, and a random ancient economic theory, you would have won the award for the broadest inappropriate brush stroke in extreme right wing FUD history.
Could be due to the soon to come regulatory door to the walled garden.
If you don’t own the device, you have no say and it can remain sealed.
No MDN “Hotel California” is the old ussr. It favors the autocrat, not the governed. But with your MAGA proclivities, I see why you said it.
Perfect example of libturdism:
Please define woman:
Supreme Court nominee: I can’t because I’m not a biologist
That’s a response only a libturd would accept as normal
Just one of thousands of examples of stupidity that make Americans despise libturds
Please define Mr. Potato Head, Dr. Seuss dropout.
Perhaps Apple want to package AppleCare etc. Business might be interested in the leasing option as some buy Apple products in quantity (but still nowhere near the consumer market) so that they can use the scheme for tax write-off incentive. But I was a bit ticked off at he use of the word “subscription”. Nothing is straightforward. If implemented, Apple will let a leasing outlet or two to manage it anyway, wash their hands and they will laugh all the way to the bank. Sorry for being so cynical for everything Apple do these days or ever since Cook became the CEO (sighing at myself….). I am happy that Apple make money, in fact, make a lot of them but do it in a bit more straightforward way. Not “in your face” way, like an ugly and large MagSafe stamp in the back of clear case for iPhone which is telling the users to “buy it” loud but Apple have to realize that it’s actually defying the whole purpose of the MagSafe concept. as well as ruining the clear case. My daughter wanted a clear case when she purchased a 13 Pro but was terribly repelled by it.
Oops, I am way off the track…again:-)
Perpetual rent.
I bet the young people of today think this is a great thing.
I buy my phone and when I move on, I sell it.
Renting a phone and paying for it FOREVER with nothing to show for it?
No.