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The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

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Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#61

Post by socalgal2 »

I'm not sure I understand all the hate in this thread.

I had a friend who bought a new Mac every year, selling his old Mac. His calculation was that it was about the same price as keeping one Mac and upgrading every 5 years.

I'd consider leasing a Mac through this program. I priced one out, with the options I chose it's $8149, lease for $177 (6372 for 3yrs, 8496 for 4yrs).

Yes, at the end of those 3 years I don't have a mac, I have to keep paying, but I'd prefer a new Mac every 3yrs and it's just easier than trying to sell it for $1777. It doesn't seem like a bad deal to me, plenty of people lease cars. Plus, if you consider you can keep your moneny in interest earning account, then at 3% you'd end up with $2256

I'm not saying that makes it a good deal for you, but I personally like the idea of not paying out $8149 day one, especially for something I know has a shelf life. I'm on an 2021 M1 Mac. It works great. But I've also tried to run 70b LLMs and run out of memory (64g), so I think about upgrading to 128g which, being Apple, I can only do by buying a new mac.

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#62

Post by iamnothere »

fckgw wrote: post #43
paxys wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that we need to use the financing models of cars for basic consumer electronics is the dystopian part.

You can still just buy it. This is another payment option.

For now

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#63

Post by swat535 »

socalgal2 wrote: post #61

I'm not sure I understand all the hate in this thread. I had a friend who bought a new Mac every year, selling his old Mac. His calculation was that it was about the same price as keeping one Mac and upgrading every 5 years. I'd consider leasing a Mac through this program. I priced one out, with the options I chose it's $8149, lease for $177 (6372 for 3yrs, 8496 for 4yrs). Yes, at the end of those 3 years I don't hav…

I don't see the point for consumers. Perhaps a minority will buy a new model every year but many people keep their devices for years to come.

Companies that require frequent hardware refreshes would benefit from this, though Apple already had has programs for those.

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#64

Post by recursivedoubts »

alonzomorning77 wrote: post #44
recursivedoubts wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

legit could be your last phone ever, why upgrade?

apple upgrade forced obsolescence maybe?

if you are willing to run an old OS (and the OS's are getting worse too) then I think you should be OK

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#65

Post by paxys »

nerdjon wrote: post #23

The math for the new program is kinda perplexing, my guess is that they are hoping that most people just will send in the device and upgrade. If I am reading the FAQ here properly: https://www.apple.com/shop/apple-upgrade . > If you decide to buy the device, the purchase option fee is the list price minus any lease payments you’ve made minus any remaining discounts or trade-in credit. (excluding tax and any damage fe…

> iPhone 17 pro max would be $1199 to buy (~1273 with tax) or $34.99 for 24 months totaling $839.76. So would cost 433.33 at the end of the lease to keep it

A lot of people aren’t going to have that $433 at the end of the lease to purchase the device outright, and so will have to roll it into another 2-year monthly payment, and another one after that.

So the goal of the program is the same as every other similar one - they want to turn a one-time device purchase into a perpetual monthly revenue stream, while keeping ownership of the asset at the end.

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#67

Post by [deleted] »

tamimio wrote: post #20

So this new one seems like hardware-as-a-service subscription, the hardware is basically rented out, and since everything is linked to apple account it’s easier to lock it remotely if you don’t pay that month. They are probably planning to increase the prices and are introducing this model so it looks less of a payment method, except you don’t even own it.

[deleted]

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#68

Post by jerlam »

js2 wrote: post #53
xp84 wrote: post #16

Seems like a good place to also mourn the canonical best iPhone financing method - the blissfully simple Apple Card payment plan. They got rid of it[1] (except if you're engaging in the postpaid carrier contract foolishness) in 2023, which coincidentally was the last time I felt the need to get a new iPhone. I know a lot of people use postpaid, but I can't understand why. I'd challenge anyone to justify that decision…

I'm on Verizon postpaid, 4 lines on Unlimited Plus for $31/line. That's hard to beat pre-paid for comparable service. Yes, I have to threaten to leave Verizon once a year to get them to add a bunch of customer loyalty discounts, but that's not less work than switching pre-paid carriers to chase deals. I subscribe to /r/NoContract/ so I have a pretty good idea what's out there. Visible+ is a comparable pre-paid plan,…

Visible has a family/friends plan - called "Inner Circle" - that comes with a $5/month discount on the Visible+ or Pro plans, and allows one account to pay for all the others.

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#69

Post by bri3d »

wxw wrote: post #17

> To make way for Apple Upgrade — a new experience that offers more products and terms that work for you — we’re saying goodbye to the iPhone Upgrade Program. https://www.apple.com/shop/apple-upgrade It looks like this leasing program is just moving into a more generic/Apple-wide offering... not sure if the fine print changes. [edit: from the comments, it sounds like the difference is it was previously 0% interest fi…

It's "just" a restructuring; the previous setup was a really bizarre financial product where Citizens Bank gave you a 24-month 0% personal loan to buy an iPhone, but Apple would also buy your phone and loan out and sell you a new one every 12 months.

Now it's just a normal lease product with a 0% money factor through Klarna, that also works across Apple.

What this does is gives Apple more "price flexibility" (aka, they can raise prices more easily, which was probably a lot of the driver for this), but also gives consumers more buying power flexibility since it's a simple product that works across the board rather than a bizarre iPhone specific optimized financial instrument.

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#70

Post by apercu »

nerdjon wrote: post #23

The math for the new program is kinda perplexing, my guess is that they are hoping that most people just will send in the device and upgrade. If I am reading the FAQ here properly: https://www.apple.com/shop/apple-upgrade . > If you decide to buy the device, the purchase option fee is the list price minus any lease payments you’ve made minus any remaining discounts or trade-in credit. (excluding tax and any damage fe…

"You'll own nothing and you will love it"
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