Apple Rumored to Be Launching iPhone Subscription Service

gamerant.com:

Over recent years, Apple has been making active efforts into pushing more control over its ecosystem and building its current offering, ranging from Apple's own chips to adding more digital services. One of these includes introducing more subscription-based services. Now, it's rumored that Apple is working on a hardware subscription for its iPhones, similar to the company's existing subscription offerings.

With the tech giant earning over $19 billion in the last quarter of 2021 in services alone, Apple doesn't appear to be slowing down in the subscription department, with services including the likes of Apple Music, iCloud, Apple TV Plus, and Apple Arcade among others. As such, a recent report indicates that the tech giant is preparing for a similar strategy for its flagship product, the iPhone. The subscription in question is expected to be tied to Apple's other services and launched as a bundled offering.

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Accordingly, the subscription will fall similar to auto-leasing programs, though it will be the first time Apple will go for a hardware subscription model. However, it's expected that the service won't follow an installment scheme where the cost of the device would be divided over 12 or 24 months. Instead, it will be a specified monthly fee depending on the device in use linked to the Apple ID, be it an iPhone 13 mini or an iPhone SE with 5G. Apple is also seemingly working on the possibility of letting users swap devices for newer models when launched under the subscription program.

While it's likely that Apple won't officially announce any details about the service just yet, there are speculations that this will be tied to Apple One bundles and AppleCare plans.