{"id":833111,"date":"2026-07-30T09:09:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T09:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833111\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T09:09:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T09:09:23","slug":"apple-upgrade-isnt-the-best-way-to-buy-an-iphone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833111\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Upgrade Isn\u2019t the Best Way to Buy an iPhone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple has spent more than a decade tending to its thriving walled garden of products. Outgoing CEO Tim Cook\u2019s core legacy at the company was turning it into a subscription service<\/a>, where devices and services sync and communicate seamlessly, locking customers in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Apple Upgrade<\/a> is the latest iteration of that vision. On Tuesday, Apple announced<\/a> a new product leasing service that lets you rent products like a new iPhone<\/a>, iPad<\/a>, Mac<\/a>, or Apple Watch<\/a>. (The news was leaked a week early<\/a> by Bloomberg\u2019s Mark Gurman.)<\/p>\n

Apple Upgrade is a partnership with the financial company Klarna, known for its buy-now, pay-later services<\/a>. If you sign up, you can pay a monthly fee to get a brand-new device. After a year or 24 months, you can keep paying the monthly fee but swap the hardware for something new. If you want something sooner, there\u2019s a fee to swap devices before the 12-month mark.<\/p>\n

Monthly plans start at $18 for iPhones, $12 for Apple Watches, $25 for Macs, and $12 for iPads. iPhones come unlocked, meaning your device isn\u2019t tethered to a carrier and will work internationally with no issues. The program also offers device trade-in, which can lower the monthly amount you pay for the lease. Apple will also offer 3 percent daily cash back if you pay the lease with an Apple Card<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paying $18 per month for 24 months is $432\u2014that’s for the $599 iPhone 17e<\/a>. But that\u2019s not exactly a discount, because you don\u2019t own the device. iPhones tend to hold their value well<\/a>, so buying a phone outright and reselling it is a better option financially. The fine print of Apple Upgrade also requires you to return the device in the initial condition you got it, meaning the company could charge more for any wear and tear. (You can pay a little more per month to add AppleCare insurance to the plan.)<\/p>\n

Apple Upgrade also means the end of the company\u2019s iPhone upgrade plan<\/a>, a similar system that let people pay installments to buy the latest iPhone models. If you\u2019re still enrolled in the program, Apple says you don\u2019t have to take any action, and payments will continue until the end of your 24-month term. If your plan allows you to get a new device, Apple says it will \u201cmake it easy to get it in a way that works for you.\u201d Or, you can continue paying out the existing loan and keep the device. You can switch from the iPhone upgrade plan to Apple Upgrade through your Apple account.<\/p>\n

Fundamentally, Apple Upgrade functions as yet another way to keep users loyal to its product ecosystem. It also limits what people can do with their devices once they have them, as they\u2019ll need to return them to the company later. Kyle Wiens, CEO of the repair company iFixit<\/a>, says this move incrementally erodes people\u2019s ownership of their devices.<\/p>\n

\u201cApple is using their huge cash advantage to turn us all into renters rather than owners,\u201d Wiens wrote in a text to WIRED. \u201cThat will cost people both money and agency. They know how much these phones are worth after a year and are maximizing their profit.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Apple representative indicated to WIRED that the ongoing memory shortage<\/a> did not inspire Apple Upgrade, though it arrives shortly after Apple raised prices<\/a> on several of its products. As everything gets more expensive<\/a>, renting could be seen as a way of easing those added costs\u2014all while still being able to use the latest and greatest device.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple has spent more than a decade tending to its thriving walled garden of products. Outgoing CEO Tim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1337,16556,64,63,9958,2718,287454,1341,1339,203,19590,10301,215,16566,105],"class_list":["post-833111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-apple","tag-apple-watch","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-computers","tag-consumer-tech","tag-ipads","tag-iphone","tag-mac","tag-mobile","tag-phones","tag-smartphones","tag-smartwatches","tag-tablets","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}