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Businesses Iphone Apple

Apple Is Working on a Hardware Subscription Service for iPhones (bloomberg.com) 67

Posted by msmash from the up-next dept.
Apple is working on a subscription service for the iPhone and other hardware products, a move that could make device ownership similar to paying a monthly app fee, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. From the report: The service would be Apple's biggest push yet into automatically recurring sales, allowing users to subscribe to hardware for the first time -- rather than just digital services. But the project is still in development, said the people, who asked not to identified because the initiative hasn't been announced, Bloomberg News reports.
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Apple Is Working on a Hardware Subscription Service for iPhones More

Apple Is Working on a Hardware Subscription Service for iPhones

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  • My best guess is that their legal agreements with the phone companies must've ended.
    • Sounds like a way to get around right to repair. If the customer doesn't own the device then the company is not obligated to make it repairable in any way
      • Also if you dont own the device you have no expectation of privacy do you? This was established in courts with the company based email subject.
        • Yeah...no thank you.

          I don't rent my software and I won't rent my hardware.

          I gave up on Adobe products (found VERY good replacements) due to their going "rental" only on their software.

          I don't do it for hardware either.

          It doesn't sound like Apple is going this route as ONLY option, but if they do, it would be likely the only thing that would push me towards an android phone/tablet, etc...

          • What did you find as a replacement for LightRoom? That's my last holdout keeping me on Windows.

            • What did you find as a replacement for LightRoom? That's my last holdout keeping me on Windows.

              Corel Aftershot Pro [aftershotpro.com]. $80, no subscription, works on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

              • I use iPhone Upgrade Program and have upgraded my phone every time it has become eligible which is every. Time the new ones are available. I make my selection, and my phone is upgraded. I get shipped the new phone, I ship the old phone back, and I am happy. What is the difference with this ?

            • Darktable is not bad. It is cross-platform - Mac, Linux, and Windows. It's much closer to Lightroom than Gimp is to Photoshop anwyay.

            • Darktable is pretty damn decent, you just have to take the time to set it up in a way that works with your particular workflow. It's completely modular, and modules can be put pretty much anywhere... But I don't use lightroom for super in depth work, I have preset actions on import that I know my camera needs, and then tweak from there. I generally don't do tons of fancy masks and other stuff in lightroom, those I'm more comfortable with opening in PS. So depending on what you use LR for darktable may or ma

            • What did you find as a replacement for LightRoom? That's my last holdout keeping me on Windows.

              Well, for LR, I initially went with On1 RAW [on1.com] .

              I found it to be the closes to LR....both for corrections and cataloging and file management.

              I stopped LR at version 5. In ON1 I was a big fan of it having layers...while working in full RAW. LR didn't have that then, but they may now. I found On1, at times did have some slowness problems on my computer....and I have a Mac Pro (tower, one of the latest before the M

          • You are not the only one. I've moved away from Adobe stuff to Affinity products, and other PDF generators which are just as good... and don't require subscriptions.

            Hardware, similar. Ceding ownership of my device means stronger, more invasive DRM, and more rights taken away, not to mention higher prices total.

            Renting also makes for a dystopian horror story. Say a recession hits, and people lose their jobs. For a lot of people, their phone is their only method of communication. Losing cellular access is

        • Not entirely, I honestly doubt much distinction in terms of what one already agrees to in using Apple services versus them formally owning the device. Ownership as best I know is a lesser principle when it comes to expectations of privacy. You are still protected from unwarranted search in a rental car (or apartment, or hotel room for that matter).
          • It was rules that employers could read any email they wanted for the employees mailbox because the company was the owner of the domain and the account, not the employee. No expectation of privacy.
      • But since Apple still owns it, aren't they responsible to repair/replace the device? Why would I continue to pay a monthly fee for a device that no longer works? I guess the devil will be in the details of this leasing plan.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by slazzy ( 864185 )
        I don't think there's motive other than profit here, although it's possible they will destroy used devices or ship them off to third world countries to kill off the second-hand market I guess. But having a direct tap into everyone's bank account each month is a pretty good motivation all on it's own. Apple devices are getting so expensive it makes sense to have more like a car payment model.
      • plus i am sure you will still need to pay it all out immediately if it ever breaks. nah, i'm good.

    • My best guess is that their legal agreements with the phone companies must've ended.

      Though the article doesn't give any more details than the summary, my interpretation is that users would pay (guessing) $50/month for an iPhone N and then in 18 months receive an iPhone N+1 in the mail without it being an outright purchase.

      The problem that Apple is facing, at least in my opinion, is diminishing returns on the hardware. Annual releases don't seem to incorporate must-have functions in the way they did many years ago, and the prices are going up as well.

      Between the form factor, storage increas

      • For now, I submit that most iPhone owners are willing to use a 2-year-old or 3-year-old phone, because the reasons to upgrade have more to do with the old phone wearing out - cracked screen, reduced battery life, a storage squeeze, or apps not working with an EoL release of iOS.

        I go longer than that, haha.

        My upgrade route was:

        1. iPhone 3GS

        2. iPhone 6s Plus

        3. iPhone 12 Pro Max

        And so far, I'm quite happy with that and likely will be for a good while to come.

        I'm thinking of getting a new battery for t

        • Wow that's not too far from what I did:
          1. iPhone (original)
          2. iPhone 4
          3. iPhone 5s
          4. iPhone 12

          My wife held onto hers ever longer:
          1. iPhone 3GS
          2. iPhone 12

          Yep she had an iPhone 3GS until last year when they shut down the 3G network and she had to finally upgrade. She wouldn't have done it otherwise because as she put it, "Why? It still works."

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Teckla ( 630646 )

            Yep she had an iPhone 3GS until last year when they shut down the 3G network and she had to finally upgrade. She wouldn't have done it otherwise because as she put it, "Why? It still works."

            Because of lack of security updates and the ability to get owned by a simple malformed text message...

        • I've been similarly impressed with the longevity of my spouse's iPhones. I swapped the battery in the ~2016 6s for a new one once or twice, and it was still working fine when I bought a new 11 as a Christmas present.

          I must be much harder on phones, the Android burners I buy rarely last more than a year or two at most.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Pieroxy ( 222434 )

          The better way would be for you to sell your iPhone 6s+ and get a real security cam (or two) with the price. Another good thing about iPhone is that they resell pretty well.

          • The better way would be for you to sell your iPhone 6s+ and get a real security cam (or two) with the price. Another good thing about iPhone is that they resell pretty well.

            Hmm...I wouldn't imagine I'd get very much for such an old phone??

            I've got a few old iPhones around, I also use them hooked to small speakers as Spotify players around the house, etc...through wi-fi.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Pieroxy ( 222434 )

              A 6sPlus 128G in perfect condition will get you €100 in cash right now. On eBay you could easily get 50% more, but it is more involving as you need to find the proper buyer.

      • Then what happens to iPhone N-1? If you get a new one in the mail, then there is a loss in the perceived value of keeping a product for longer; to save money, to save the environment. It leads to a disposable attitude in the consumer, which is great for Apple which sells hardware but it terrible for many others.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by torkus ( 1133985 )

        Several vendors (including Apple, MS, and even Amazon among others) have been developing hardware subscription models and exploring interest on the enterprise side for the last several years.

        Apple, in particular, already offers this model for Macs in enterprise - it's billed at 25% hardware cost per year and on year 4 you can upgrade to a new computer in lieu of payment #4. Granted the new computer comes with the same 25% x 4 payments and the cycle repeats.

        I find it funny that we have "new" offerings that

    • I think Apple's been working on this for a long time, it's just become more urgent to maintain profits and growth. So why now?

      1) The iPhone is now "good enough". Like Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office, the current versions meet the needs of customers, and every year it's harder for Apple to convince people to upgrade, and upgrade cycles are getting longer. Subscriptions let them sell "new features" as a nebulous promise, never having to explain what those features will be until you've already paid for th

      • I think your 3) is the fundamental reason. If they own the equipment, it becomes very difficult to legally make them open the phones to side loading or tell them how they can make revenue. I keep seeing movements to "regulate" big tech and the App Store is in the regulator's crosshairs due to the Epic lawsuit. 3) is a good mechanism for skirting the issue completely. A more interesting aspect is who owns the data generated on the iPhone. If you have all your photos, movies, and music on iCloud and you can

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      My best guess is that their legal agreements with the phone companies must've ended.

      Ended?

      The telephony conglomerates will be right there collaborating on this one. Their biggest source of lost revenue are the fact that people can _own_ their own phones. Once that expensive 24 month contract is up the hardware is theirs to keep or *gasp* people can choose reasonably priced phones purchased outright and not have to pay the phone company to hire/purchase a handset. They would love, absolutely adore to be able to go back to a time where you had to rent your handset from the phone company

  • I will always prefer to own computing hardware. Similarly, I chose to own music or books or my own storage space (or then when using hosting services or cloud services have a local copy of all the material at all times). With rented or leased material one can not react fast enough. When apple started to plan hardware scanning, I got rid of the iphone. I eventually bought a new one when the plans did not get implemented but would not hesitate a second to toss it away if scanning on phones would start again.

  • Realistically, with the walled garden/captive market approach Apple has taken, you don't really own the devices they sell, anyway. May as well make the fact that you're really leasing that iphone clear and up front.

  • Apple: Always taking the ideas of others [google.com] and acting like it's our own.

  • In other words ... (Score:3)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Thursday March 24, 2022 @12:33PM (#62386667)

    Apple Is Working on a Hardware Subscription Service for iPhones

    Renting the phone -- what's old is new again.

    • Only available on the Bell Telephone network.
    • The cell phone carriers were effectively doing it up until 5-10 years ago. You could get phones for free with 2-year contracts, since the monthly charge already included the cost of a phone.

  • Fuck Apple. [slashdot.org]

  • Isn't this kind of identical to what we had with cellphone plans? We'd pay $20 extra each month for a plan which gave us a "free" phone every two years.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AuMatar ( 183847 )

      No, there's 2 major differences:

      1)With the cell phone plan, after 2 years you owned the phone, and could continue to use it, negotiating a cheaper plan or swapping carriers. Here you own nothing. They may even remotely brick the thing when they decide its time for you to upgrade.

      2)THey own the device, so they can consent to a search from law enforcement without a warrant.

      3)Apple would get the money, not the phone company. This is actually a benefit to the consumer as it allows them to shop for a cheaper

      • 2 is more concerning. Especially if you think only law enforcement is going to get that data. What ever ad agency that pay Apple enough money is going to be in on that with Google being the biggest customer.

      • 1)With the cell phone plan, after 2 years you owned the phone, and could continue to use it, negotiating a cheaper plan or swapping carriers.

        I don't recall any major carriers offering a cheaper plan if you already owned a phone before T-Mobile did it around 2010.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by torkus ( 1133985 )

        2 is hypothetical and probably wrong.

        If you lease a car, you are absolutely the one who decides to consent to a search of the vehicle (or not). (yeah yeah car analogy)
        The same would apply to a house/apartment you rent/lease.

        Ownership of an asset does not necessarily mean you can exercise direct control of it. That depends on both the lease contract and (of course) the relevant laws.

    • Yeah. Funny thing though, the free phones eventually went away but the $20 a month is still going strong on my bill.

  • iPhone Upgrade Program (Score:3)

    by Kyogreex ( 2700775 ) on Thursday March 24, 2022 @12:49PM (#62386729)

    Isn't this essentially what the iPhone Upgrade Program [apple.com] already is?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Isn't this essentially what the iPhone Upgrade Program [apple.com] already is?

      I think this is more akin to "if you want your phone to work, pay up monthly or we'll charge your credit card 3 times what it's worth", which is the modern day equivalent of sending some hired goons with some borderline legal paperwork to repossess it.

  • Many carriers, like T-Mobile, charge you a monthly fee and "give" you phone. You're essentially leasing a phone from the carrier and it gives you a new one every 2-3 years. Most people don't have the $1000-$1400 to shell out for the latest and greatest money sucking status symbol, so they happily cough up $50+/month plus service + insurance. Apple is just offering the same type of program. This just moves the revenue stream from the carrier to the hardware manufacturer. I will be surprised if this does

  • This also means Apple can require the phone's return in 18 months & charge outrageous penalties for scratches & screen damage. YOU might be willing to endure a cracked screen for 5 months, but if you're going to get charged the full retail repair cost of a new screen ANYWAY, you'll be more likely to repair it promptly. And if it gets lost/stolen/destroyed, Apple can charge full retail list price for the replacement. What-a-bargain!

  • Step 1: greenlit article
    Step 2: ZOMG - we're all gonna die
    Step 3: ???
    Step 4: Profit

    This place is getting super predicable. So now Apple is SO bad (how bad is it?) that the wireless carriers that have been doing this for years are now the slashdot darlings.

    I got 2 Lenovo "bought" chrome boxes that I owned, but google pushed a bad e-mail update before EOL . . .

    As long as ownership is still an option, not news baby.
  • How's the new service different from the already-existing "iPhone Upgrade Program" ..? https://www.apple.com/shop/iph... [apple.com]
  • I'm aware of a few companies that do something like this. It's popular in some business circles. I think of it as a fancy Lease, basically. Here's how it essentially works:

    -You get a 'current' device at all times, refreshed at a regular interval
    -Often, you can upgrade at any time to a higher device class too. For a fee of course
    -Things like an advanced warranty are baked into the price. Yes that includes accidental breakage as well. You get a replacement automatically when this happens.
    -As a customer (

  • But fuck no. Make sure you post negative reactions to this any place you can in case this is a test balloon.

    There is NO WAY I'm giving them even the slightest argument I don't own my device.

  • When the tea lady is slipping notes to the media, it sounds like FUD.

  • If you end up just renting the device, then they can resell it several times at highly marked up prices over the course of its life. Once in 1st world countries and then down the ladder from there.
  • And want to get into the monthly phone payment racket themselves. Will they also claim you get a 'free phone on us' all while the customer is actually paying for that free phone many times over on a monthly basis in perpetuity?

  • They figure out a way. They are the distilled essence of everything I hate about business

  • Is there any real indication that Apple will be moving entirely away from owned devices, or are they presenting this kind of subscription service as an option for buyers to enable slightly more upgrades more affordable?

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