Apple will soon let you lease your iPhone instead of buying it
Apple launches Apple Upgrade on 28 July, a Klarna-backed program to lease iPhones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watches in monthly payments, with the option to keep or swap the device.
Buying a new iPhone keeps getting more expensive, so Apple is changing tack: instead of asking for the full price up front, it wants to lease you the phone. On 28 July it launches Apple Upgrade, a program built with Swedish fintech Klarna that turns the price of a device into a monthly payment.
How does Apple Upgrade work?
The idea is simple and familiar from cars: you pay a monthly fee for a fixed term and, at the end, you decide what to do. iPhones and Apple Watches can be leased for up to 24 months; Macs and iPads for up to 36. When the term ends, you keep the device, return it, or swap it for a newer model and start the cycle again. It takes only a simple credit check and you can sign up in Apple Stores and online.
For now the program starts in the United States, and Apple will close enrolment in the old iPhone Upgrade Program and standard financing to make way for it. In other words, this is a replacement, not an add-on.
Why is Apple doing this?
For a distinctly unromantic reason: phone sales have slowed and prices have jumped. Spreading the cost over a monthly fee lowers the psychological barrier of spending more than a thousand euros in one go, and the bet is that people will then upgrade more often. It is the same logic as the subscriptions that already took over software — now applied to the hardware itself.
What we do not yet know is when, or whether, it reaches Portugal and Europe, where Klarna already operates. Until then, note the trend: the gadget you used to buy is becoming one more service you subscribe to. If you are comparing flagships, meanwhile, take a look at what the competition is doing with the new foldable Samsung Galaxy Z Fold; the program details are on Apple’s official site.
By Oliver Grant
Image: Ank Kumar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
