Apple is working on a way to turn the iPhone into a recurring subscription service that could launch as soon as this year, according to Bloomberg News.
The new offering would fit neatly into Apple’s ongoing efforts to emphasize recurring subscription revenue.
Apple already offers the Prime-like Apple One subscription service that includes (depending on the specific package) Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Fitness+, and so on. And there’s a program called the iPhone Upgrade Program that allows customers to pay a monthly fee for ongoing iPhone upgrades and a warranty.
We don’t know any details yet about how this new service would differ from that. But we could see it being a combination of the two… If the report is true, we might hear more when new flagship iPhones are announced this fall.
MacDailyNews Take: Of course, an iPhone – and/or iPad, Mac, etc. – subscription service would be an optional way to get the hardware, in addition to the usual product sales, outright and subsidized.
$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! — MacDailyNews, September 11, 2019
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