You'll Own Nothing and Like It: Apple Is Working on Hardware Subscriptions for iPhones

Tech giant Apple is working on turning its iPhone and other products into a subscription-based hardware service sharing some similarities with a car lease.

Bloomberg reports that tech giant Apple is developing a subscription service for its iPhone and other hardware products, which could turn iPhone ownership into a subscription service rather than direct hardware ownership. The service would be Apple’s biggest effort so far to enter the automatically recurring sales market.

Apple CEO Tim Cook poses for a goofy selfie ( Justin Sullivan/Getty)

The project is reportedly still in development, according to sources with knowledge of the matter, and has yet to be finalized. Apple shares climbed to a session high falling Bloomberg’s reporting of the feature late this week, closing up 2.3 percent at $174.07. Although the stock is still down two percent this year, Apple has seen increases daily for the past eight days.

Apple’s development of a hardware subscription service, similar to an auto-leasing program, would be a major shift for the company’s overall strategy which has largely focused on selling devices at full price outright. Apple has previously offered installment packages or carrier subsidies, however.

This move could help Apple to generate additional revenue and make it easier for customers to justify spending thousands of dollars on Apple’s latest iPhones, some of which have received underwhelming updates.

The iPhone still accounts for Apple’s largest source of sales, generating almost $192 billion last year — more than half of Apple’s revenue. The Silicon Valley giant reportedly wants to make purchasing an iPhone or iPad as easy as paying for iCloud storage or an Apple Music subscription. Tim Cook’s company is currently planning to let customers subscribe to hardware purchases with the same Apple ID and App Store account used to purchase apps and subscribe to services currently.

Read more at Bloomberg here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address [email protected]

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