Apple is reportedly scrapping a long-gestating iPhone hardware subscription service, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The company wanted to simplify (and control) the iPhone upgrade cycle by allowing customers to subscribe to new hardware like they would other apps or services—paying a monthly fee and receiving a new phone every year. Following a series of setbacks, Apple opted to wind down the program and reassign team members to other projects.
Bloomberg first reported on Apple’s hardware subscription service back in 2022, months before it was set to launch. Software bugs, regulatory concerns, and other issues forced Apple to delay the service to 2023, and then even further, until its eventual demise.
If the service had debuted, iPhone owners would have been able to pay Apple a monthly fee for their phones instead of paying for the device outright. Every year, they would have been offered the chance to swap out their current phone for the latest model.
As Bloomberg notes, regulatory concerns likely played a role in the decision. One of the reasons Apple Pay Later shut down back in July was because the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that Buy Now, Pay Later services would be subject to the same regulations as credit card companies. Apple’s hardware subscription service would have attracted similar attention, potentially making it more trouble than it was worth.
