Apple plans hardware subscription service for iPhone: report

Apple is working on a subscription service for the iPhone and other hardware products and it could arrive by the end of 2022 or at the beginning of the next year.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the move could make device ownership similar to paying a monthly app fee, allowing users to subscribe to hardware for the first time — rather than just digital services.

The move, according to the report, could help the iPhone producer generate more revenue and make it easier for consumers to stomach spending thousands of dollars on new devices.

The move would fit into tech company’s ongoing push towards subscription services as a whole. Over the past several years, it has increasingly been emphasizing recurring subscriptions like Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple News Plus, Apple Fitness Plus, and Apple Arcade as key new revenue streams for the company. Many of those services have already been bundled together into the company’s Apple One bundles, too.

According to Bloomberg’s report, the monthly charge wouldn’t simply be the price of the device divided by 12 or 24 months, but rather be a still-undecided monthly cost, potentially with the option to upgrade to new hardware as its released.

And like its other subscriptions, it would be tied to a user’s existing Apple ID account, with the possibility of bundling in AppleCare or Apple One services as well.

Right now, you can pay the tech company monthly for its services, and you can pay it monthly for an iPhone — but they’re still separate fees and plans to manage.

The company has discussed allowing users of the program to swap out their devices for new models when fresh hardware comes out. It historically releases new versions of its major devices, including the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, once a year.