alt Hacker NewsThe iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade
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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.
"If you’re leasing an iPhone, you’ll need to connect to AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon when you enroll."
Damn, this is the dealbreaker for me.
Leasing an unlocked iPhone and being able to use my current $25/mo MVNO of choice (US Mobile) may have actually tempted me (I currently buy outright and then tell myself I'll sell my current phone when I upgrade, but in reality I just have iPhone graveyard at home.)
Well, Apple did just hit a 5 trillion market cap with a PE ratio of 41.
With hardware prices increasing, selling financially challenged people on 'cheap' monthly payments seem like one way to keep the stock price pumped at these levels.
I guess they are one of the good trillion corporations though?
https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/article/apple-tops-5-tr...
I wonder what the reaction here would have been if Klarna had independently announced this program, instead of the current version which is Apple branded with a tiny “run by Klarna” in the footer.
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, given that the phone "deals" are rarely even much of a subsidy as opposed to a financing scheme that acts as a contract, and the plans cost about triple what I pay every month, for fewer features and equivalent at best priority and speeds.
[1] https://9to5mac.com/2023/06/15/apple-card-financing-sim-free...
Interesting decision. As far as I can tell, the iPhone Upgrade Program was structured like a loan where you owned the device but kept making payments. You then had the option to trade up to a new phone and add more months to the loan, or to pay out the remainder of the loan (24 months?)
They’re discontinuing this and replacing it with Apple Upgrade, which is structured as a lease. Apple owns the device and you make payments. You either return the device or buy it out at the end.
The distinction probably doesn’t matter much to the typical consumer, other than the final price differences. Some people have an emotional attachment to knowing they own the phone instead of leasing it (I’m emotionally attached to this position, however illogical) but in the end it comes down to having a device in your hand for a monthly payment.
The iPhone Upgrade Program was a 24-month 0% financing program for iPhones. The replacement Apple Upgrade<https://www.apple.com/shop/apple-upgrade> is a leasing program that also covers iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches.
Instead of automatically owning the device after making all payments, you can choose return/upgrade/buy it at the end of the lease. The new program is backed by Klarna instead of Citizens Bank, uses a soft credit check, and no longer includes AppleCare+ by default.
The fact that the page is not particularly clear about any of this should tell you everything you need to know about this change.
Holy hell--you can rent a 32GB M5 MacBook Air for $33 a month.
You can stick that in your closet for one hell of an agent playground.
A standard $33 server has trash specs by comparison.
Makes sense they discontinued it given that the last 5 iphones have been almost exactly the same
This is probably just a personal lifestyle thing, but I'd rather have a cheaper, not as good thing that I own outright rather than lease (not own) a nicer, better thing. Cars, phones, computers, whatever it is. I don't like the idea of not owning the stuff I use every day, if I could just own something not as good instead.
An interesting lesson from the "certified pre-owned" programs in automakers and mobile network providers.
Permanent "leasers" swap devices every few years, stocking the company's second-hand options and increasing average lifetime value of the participating products.
Technically my current iPhone is part of the upgrade program, but I paid if off years ago.
Why haven't I upgraded? Because there's no mini and all they make are phablets now.
Interestingly, Apple is apparently going to be able to nerf the devices if the customer misses a series of payments. [1]
Presumably this ability means that Klarna has a lower risk of nonpayment, and is willing to accept a smaller cut of the total price from Apple.
1: https://9to5mac.com/2026/07/21/ios-27-code-suggests-apple-co...
I remember dell had a lease program for laptops many many years ago. This made sense for business tax reasons.
I've tried at least several times to have an iPhone bought back by Apple - personally, at their certified stores (in Europe mostly I have to admit though), only to be told that the back-cover is broken, which effectively makes the device unusable.
you see, an iphone becomes unusable the moment the glass breaks, this is what apple reps. think. so it is some packaging that in their opinion makes up critical part of the value provided by the device. not the chips inside, or cameras, but the stupid glass cover.
and they wouldn't buy back. so this whole upgrade nonsense is perhaps valid only in very extraordinary situations.
same for broken screen or broken camera. so what I do then is try to reuse, replace, and go to small shops for repairs with third party parts, for as long as I can, so that my CO2 footprint goes down or at least extend the life of the device.
I'm pretty sure all my old iphones will at some point be running jailed servers and sandboxes, or perhaps even - claws.
This is genius, I am sure the finance department saw the benefits of the leasing model:
1. New customers: lower barrier to entry, try, or switch into the ecosystem.
2. Loyal customers: Upgrade propensity is increased as friction decreases.
3. Innovators: offers options for those who want to try a model, but might later change their minds for something that better suits them.
All this increases exposure and engagement to the brand, which translates to increasing sales and revenue.
> 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 financing and no longer is]
Can anyone explain why Apple needed Klarna for this?
They have Apple Card so presumably they are capable of providing financial services like loans on their own, why bring in a third party who will take a cut and force your consumers onto their app with a bad reputation?
I wonder what apple will do with returned devices. Are they actually refurbishable, on average, to a condition that's resellable, or will they go straight to recycling just to keep numbers of new sales up?
Do you think Apple wants to control all the old iphones so in the near future people can't repurpose them for inference servers once all hardware gets jailbroken by AI? I forsee all software and hardware becoming unlocked by anyone since there is a will and the way is becoming so easy with AI assistance. The cat and mouse game is about to end!
As an owner of Stripe stock should be I bummed that Stripe didn't get this contract? Or.. happy they are powerful enough that they must not have gotten favorable terms so they didn't bother?
I don’t see what’s the big deal about this tbh. They’re probably making this financing program for the soon to be announced iPhone and MacBook ultras, which will be more expensive than we expect
This sounds like an incredible deal, doesn't it? Transforming a capital cost to an operational cost is fantastic. The total cost to use over 2 years is also much lower on this kind of thing. I suppose the reason not to use it is that you can use an old device for much longer. My wife and parents are on an iPhone 13 and I'm on an iPhone 16. The cost over that period is consequently much lower.
In any case, doesn't this sound like an insane contract for Klarna to have signed? It's freaking Apple. Mind blowing deal for a buy-now-pay-later company to sign. Imagine being in the chain for an Apple product. What a coup.
A lot of people are talking about financially challenged people needing to lease but this enables wealthy developers to compare the (monthly) price of hardware that can run an open weight LLM locally to their Claude subscriptions…
Getting very expensive Mac hardware leased is where the juice is. As well as normalising subscription revenue and you own nothing of course, but the interesting dynamic will be shifting 10k hardware to developers that wouldn’t have considered dropping 10k on their setup
I’ve bought my last two iPhones with the 0% 24 month installments, seems like an obvious thing to do.
Does this replace that as well?
If you stop paying do you just send the device back or drop it off at the Apple Store
100% agree
Are the prices competitive with the used market? Just one datapoint: I know someone who tried to trade in a laptop; Apple offered ~$200, eBayers were buying for ~$400.
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.
So they're going to subtract the residual from the price and divide that by some term, just like leasing a car. Doesn't seem like a bad way to get a phone and in the end, they just automatically own the residual instead of buying it from you. It seems like a more predicable way to do the same thing most people are already doing.
The house never loses
This kind of business model is just another manifestation of "you'll own nothing and be happy."
Unless you are happy with Apple or Google literally owning your phone and everything in it, the solution is to buy a Pixel, with cash, unlock the bootloader, and flash GrapheneOS.
"For now, you can continue making your remaining monthly payments." Aww, thanks for the reminder Apple!
"Leases are provided by Klarna". Great. Klarna doesn't want to give me a high limit, so this is actually worse.
My MacBook Pro was over $6,000 refurbished, and this was before Apple raised prices. There's not really a point in financing smaller purchases that you can just buy outright.
question, since I couldn't find it anywhere in the terms yet: Does iPhone Upgrade Program also require the iPhone be placed into the new "partner financial lock" status, seperate of the SIMlock status (which will remain unlocked)?
https://9to5mac.com/2026/07/21/ios-27-code-suggests-apple-co...
It will be curious to see if the first Klarna defaults will start triggering a future Restricted Mode on the phone and the parts get blacklisted from re-use.
I assume certain apps will get an entitlement from Apple to enable/disable this on the device.
edit: confirmed they aren't... yet.
https://www.theverge.com/tech/972063/apple-upgrade-program-n...
interestingly, if you try and configure the lease for an ipad, the accessories are not bundled, and you have to buy them separately and pay them in full and upfront. or you can finance them separately via klarna (?)
that's a bit of a deal-breaker for me, at least for the ipad.
Leasing isn’t “I can’t afford to buy it.” It’s about capital allocation.
Why would I tie up $1,200 upfront in a device that’s going to be obsolete in a couple of years when I can spread the cost over time, preserve cash flow, and (if it’s a legitimate business expense) deduct the lease payments?
Keeping $1,200 in my business earning a return is often worth more than prepaying for a depreciating asset.
People happily lease $80,000 vehicles for exactly these reasons. Applying the same logic to a $1,200 phone isn’t irrational, just the same financing decision at a much smaller scale.
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They're switching to a lease model. Almost certainly because of the cost of components, but also in their interests to continue the "you'll own nothing" trend. They're even using Klarna as the leasing provider.
You'll own nothing and you'll be happy - World Economic Forum.
People whine about everything. This is a free loan compared to Apple MSRP.
Replaced by a lease program - https://www.apple.com/shop/apple-upgrade
Pay $32/mo (so $770 total) to use an iPhone for two years and then give it back to Apple.
This is truly the most dystopian timeline.
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 fees).
Lets look at a couple examples:
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
The cheapest 16" MBP would be 2,999 to buy (3186.44 with tax) or $57.99 for 36 months (or 80.99 for 24 months). 2087.64 or 1943.76. So around ~1k to buy it at the end.
It looks like you can keep making payments for 6 months to lower the buyout price a little bit.
So worst case scenario this is a 3 and a half year interest free loan with a higher payment at the end.
Seems not terrible? As long as you treat it as a loan and not a lease you can end at any point it seems fine and nothing really shady about it. You still have the option to own the device for the original cost.
Other than the loss of the iPhone upgrade program and the yearly upgrades, am I missing something here? I guess the biggest thing is you likely can't just pay it off and be done with it if you had the money.