Apple is reportedly ditching the iPhone plan as a subscription

Apple’s plan to offer an iPhone subscription service was over before it even began. According to Bloombergthe Cupertino company has put on hold a project that would have allowed people to pay a monthly subscription fee for annual iPhone upgrades.

Apple has debuted a blueprint to change the way people buy phones again in 2022. The company’s own theory, according to Reports from Bloomberg At the time, phone ownership was to be transformed into a model more akin to leasing a car. Instead of selling the devices outright or letting people pay for them over several years with monthly payments, consumers would pay a fixed fee each month for access to the device. When a new iPhone is released, subscribers can upgrade to the latest model.

The idea behind the now-cancelled idea was to attract more people to recurring payments and keep people locked into Apple’s ecosystem. For many consumers, the plan won’t change much functionally, other than they may pay a small monthly fee for the right to upgrade their device. Of course, they will never own the phone they use, however Most people are locked into two- or three-year payment plans However, by the time those payments are completed, the device will have lost much of its value.

Long-term, installment-based payment plans, coupled with a distinct lack of attractive features in recent iPhone releases, It led to a slowdown In upgrading people’s devices. Converting phone ownership to a subscription plan would eliminate the downside for consumers to upgrade and get new devices off store shelves. It would also move people who currently pay mobile carriers for their devices to Apple’s edge, which could anger some communications executives.

But the subscription concept also ignores a potentially key detail of the consumer experience: people want to keep their stuff. A YouGov poll From 2023, it found that seven in 10 Americans want to keep their devices for at least two years, and about one in six would keep their phones for five years or more if they could. Gallup study found More than half of the respondents They said they only upgrade phones when they have to, either because their current devices have stopped working or become outdated.

Now, that could change if Apple succeeds in upending the consumer relationship with its devices. If the phone they own is no longer just a bunch of hardware they’re renting, they might be more willing to try an upgrade if it’s going to cost them the same price every month anyway. But for now, iPhone ownership will continue as it’s always been: By paying the carrier, you pay a monthly fee until the phone is finally yours.