Apple is reportedly planning to launch a new subscription service to provide another option for customers looking to buy its products, such as iPhones and iPads.
In a new report by Bloomberg, Mark Gurman notes that the new subscription service could arrive by next year and will let members acquire an iPhone or other Apple hardware with a monthly fee rather than an outright purchase. Gurman notes that the new service would be "Apple's biggest push yet into automatically recurring sales."
Over the last several years, Apple has expanded its subscription services portfolio, such as Apple TV+, AppleCare, and Apple Arcade. The company has even consolidated several of its subscription services into Apple One bundles.
The report of a hardware-focused subscription service is interesting. Outside of AppleCare, the other hardware-centric subscription service it currently offers is an iPhone Upgrade Program, which bundles an iPhone plus AppleCare into a monthly price. This allows customers to pay off their phone long-term instead of shelling out all the money all at once while also providing an extended warranty should the phone get damaged, with the option to get a new iPhone every 12 months.
Although Bloomberg's report does not clarify how the new subscription service would work, the service could take form in several ways with all the subscription services Apple currently has, such as a bundle that includes a new iPhone, Apple One, and AppleCare under one monthly price.
To be clear, Apple has not officially announced anything, though Gurman says that the service could launch anytime between the end of 2022 to early 2023.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Source: IGN.com Apple Is Working on a Hardware Subscription Service for iPhones