Photo: Apple
Apple may be offering a new service for users who don’t want to pay the entire upfront price for an iPhone.
According toBloomberg, the tech giant is planning to launch a hardware subscription service that will allow users to pay a fee to use iPhones and other Apple hardware, in lieu of paying full price at checkout.
As the outlet notes, the plan would be similar to paying a monthly fee to use an app or other digital services. The program is still in development, Bloomberg reported.
Apple already has a monthly iPhone pricing plan in its iPhone Upgrade Program (IUP), which allows customers tosplit the cost of their iPhone over two yearswith an option to trade-in the smartphone after a year of payments.
IUP requires a 24-month installment loan from Citizens Bank and a credit check, and it remains to be seen whether the company’s new service will require one.
For Apple’s newest service, Bloomberg reported that instead of paying monthly installments over 12 or 24 months, subscribers would pay a “yet-to-be-determined monthly fee that depends on which device the user chooses.”
AsTheVergepoints out, IUP also allows customers to keep their phones when they have finished making their payments unless they have traded the device for a new iPhone before that point.
A new subscription service might mean customers will have to return their device if they stop paying, regardless of how long they have made payments (similar to how Netflix will revoke access to its content if a monthly fee is not met).
Other companies have already experimented with hardware subscriptions.
With the launch of its Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, Microsoft introducedXbox All Access, which offers gamers the option to pay $24.99 over two years to own their console. Subscribers are also given access to Xbox’s software subscription service, Game Pass.
source: people.com
