According to Bloomberg, Apple is developing a new copy-for-print subscription service, similar to subscribing to iCloud and Apple Music, where users can have new iPhones or other Apple products for a monthly subscription fee, a program apple calls "the biggest push to automatic recurring sales."
Subscription services are no stranger to everyone, whether it is Apple's own Apple Music, iCloud or other third-party software subscription services, Apple has also made a lot of money in it. If Apple launches another hardware subscription service, it will be a major step forward for Apple in the field of automatically recurring sales.
Bloomberg believes that hardware subscription services can create stable monthly cash flow for Apple, and consumers are more receptive to subscription services than buying tens of thousands of new machines at a time. At the same time, compared with installment payments, the iPhone subscription service seems to mean that consumers can interrupt at any time and return the device to terminate, but it is not yet possible to determine the price of the service for Apple's hardware subscription and what restrictions there are for related processes.
The upcoming hardware subscription service is different from the current "iPhone Renewal" program, the current "iPhone Renewal" is that after the user purchases AC+, the old machine can use 50% of the original retail price as a discount to upgrade and exchange for the next year's new iPhone.
Hardware subscriptions, on the other hand, are a fixed monthly fee, rather than dividing the cost of a phone by 12, 24, or 36 months, as instalments. And Apple will allow subscribers to upgrade their devices after the release of the new product without paying a monthly fee, and the service will also include other Apple products other than the iPhone.
For Apple, the launch of a hardware subscription service similar to a car rental program is a major shift in sales strategy. Apple plans to implement the hardware subscription by the end of 2022, but it may also be postponed until 2023 or nowhere.
Selling phones as a subscription-based service isn't Apple's first, as Google already operates its Pixel Pass subscription program in the U.S., which allows users to choose between a Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro bundled with Google's own first-party service for $45 to $55 per month.
So what do you think about Apple's upcoming hardware subscription service plan?