Apple Partners With Klarna To Offer iPhones, Macs On a Subscription Basis (computerworld.com)
- Reference: 0184588214
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/07/22/1958256/apple-partners-with-klarna-to-offer-iphones-macs-on-a-subscription-basis
- Source link: https://www.computerworld.com/article/4200023/own-nothing-upgrade-everything-apples-new-klarna-deal.html
> The introduction of the scheme gives consumers a way to purchase the company's popular high-end devices when they are introduced -- no doubt,at higher cost -- this fall. [...] A combination of changed customer habits and external threat means the stars are now aligned for hardware-as-a-service models. "Reframing a device as a low monthly payment protects that [upgrade] cadence and allows Apple to start marketing their products as device-as-a-service to consumers, which no other vendor was ever able to do," [IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo] wrote to me.
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> There is a one-more-thing aspect to this: the products are effectively being leased, a new approach that will give Apple a stronger grip on EOL devices, helping it grab more of them for refurbishment, resale, and recycling. Over time, this will give the company a much stronger grip on the lucrative second-user market that exists around Apple equipment, even while for almost every consumer product we find the life we want is something we can rent, but [3]probably can't afford to own .
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> The other solid reason to take a partnership approach is risk management. Apple had intended to develop its own buy-now, pay-later scheme via Apple Pay Later, but [4]abandoned that plan as it became riskier with rising bank rates. "Also, by backing the program with Klarna rather than reviving the in-house subscription plan it shelved in 2024, Apple captures the demand upside without taking the credit risk onto its own balance sheet," Jeronimo said.
"Apple Upgrade lands at precisely the moment Apple needs it," Jeronimo wrote in a note seen by Computerworld. "Having just pushed Mac and iPad prices up on the back of the memory shortage, with iPhone increases widely expected in September -- as well as the new iPhone foldable expected at $2,500 -- Apple's real risk is that rising prices even further can impact the upgrade cycle."
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/apple-launch-upgrade-device-leasing-program-spur-sales-bloomberg-news-reports-2026-07-21/
[2] https://www.computerworld.com/article/4200023/own-nothing-upgrade-everything-apples-new-klarna-deal.html
[3] https://medium.com/from-heart-to-hand/the-subscription-society-what-happens-when-you-own-nothing-ef32d5bc32d2
[4] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c255y82y9x8o
You will own nothing (Score:5, Insightful)
You will own nothing AND be perpetually in debt while not owning it.
What percentage of people buy their phone outright (Score:3)
What percentage of people buy their phone outright these days? I use Verizon's payment plan to pay for my phone, but I own at the end and will then run it a few more years, until I start having problems with it or can't get certain apps to work correctly anymore, like Android Auto.
But through Klarna at 35+% interest..... uh, no. If that were my option from the carrier, I'd just put it on my credit card or just pay directly. My feeling is that Klarna is where you go when you need to finance items you really cannot afford at all.
Re: (Score:2)
I did. It was cheaper over the next two years to purchase it directly than any kind of payment scheme. In Canada they'll take a price of a flip that is say, 1700$ from samsung, say the MSRP is 2400$ at a telco, cut the price in half with a up-front "credit" since they can't do cancellation fees etc, so the phone is 1200$, then have you pay equal payments over 2 years of 50$ a month + whatever expensive plan. Then if you want to keep it, you have to pay the up-front credit of 1200$.
By buying it directly I sa
Re: (Score:2)
> I use Verizon's payment plan to pay for my phone
Thanks to T-Mobile's latest cash grab, I ditched my grandfathered plan and ported to Visible. Even though it's a Verizon subsidiary, that doesn't fly with Apple when it comes to doing their 0% Apple Card financing (you have to be on a postpaid plan one one of the "big 3" networks). I'm just gonna ride the phone I have for a few more years and like that option for fording a river in Oregon Trail, wait and see if the situation improves .
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know about the non-us phone market but based on slashdot comments it seems like non-carrier locked, not carrier financed phones are maybe more common than here. Certainly in the US that option is only for eccentrics.
Klarna though seems no less but also not inherently more predatory to me than the very worst of the ultra high interest, tiny limit credit card issuers (Credit One, PREMIER, and similar).
I don't know what to tell someone though who can't afford a phone or PC. I would have said
Re: (Score:2)
Usually, you can score a deal on a phone by churning between carriers every time one runs a compelling promotion. The main problem with this strategy is for folks who live in rural areas where only one carrier works well.
The downside to the US's carrier-subsidized phone business model is that the money still has to come from somewhere, and it does - in the form of higher service costs.
Re: What percentage of people buy their phone outr (Score:2)
I live in a rural area where no provider works well, you insensitive clod!
Yet another reason (Score:3)
..to despise Apple
Optionalizing additional incentivizers for (l)usrs (Score:2)
After raising prices significantly, we at Apple are now generously partnering with predatory financial companies to offer and induce our customers to become perpetual loan slaves for their basic computing needs. Our (l)usrs mean everything to us. And coming soon: additional optionalities with fantastic companies, including Payday Loans! The combined footprint of their thousands of shty little stores brings the financial abuse closer to your door than ever before. We're super proud of all that we're now able
Probably because Apple Card is changing banks (Score:2)
In the early days of the Apple Card, it was pretty easy to get approved. That leniency is probably never coming back with Chase at the helm, so Apple needed a new way of turning folks with subprime credit into customers.
Yeah, there's an argument to be made that people who can only afford to lease Apple products should probably go with something else that's more budget-friendly instead, but more often than not you don't end up with poor credit in the first place if you're strict about sticking to your budge
Idiot tax for the idiot tag (Score:2)
It's really amazing that Apple managed to make their users look down on people who don't "afford" Apple bling.
Re: (Score:2)
> It's really amazing that Apple managed to make their users look down on people who don't "afford" Apple bling.
But for a brief moment they did sell a sort-of cheap laptop.
Re: (Score:2)
I think there's a difference between Apple "users" and Apple "fanbois". I'm one of the former, but not one of the latter.
I dislike intensely what Apple has become as a company. I don't use most of their software empire, have the stupid cloud blocked (because they're Internet amateurs), hate the dumb "we changed your file because you opened it" model they try to use to replace "Save As", can't stand the fake "green" orientation (please tell me how green it is to CNC mill a computer case out of aluminum vs. s
Gottta choose. You just gotta choose. (Score:1)
Feed the kids. Pay the rent. Gas the car. Pay the student loan.
Or rent a $1000 feel-good telephone.
Re: (Score:2)
> Feed the kids. Pay the rent. Gas the car. Pay the student loan.
Man, nobody ever reads The Rules of Acquisition these days. Exploitation begins at home; make the kids get jobs.
I do not rent hardware/software (Score:1)
I am NOT an Apple hater, and they regularly piss me off, but their gear works for me.
I do not care what you use, if it works for you, you made the right choice.
If I can but buy it outright then I do not buy it.
I still run my 27" iMac with all the software I bought with zero extra costs
I do not install "in App purchases" Apps because of hidden costs, I have no idea what costs are involved, so no, not touching them.
my iPhone 11 will get replaced when it actually dies, not when Apple decides it needs
Klarna sounds like a Doctor Who villain. (Score:2)
They're not even trying to hide it, which I actually find quite refreshing.
That's not a subscription. (Score:2)
Sounds like credit financing, if it requires a credit check it is not a subscription.
Why buy new ? (Score:2)
Just wait a bit and there will be a glut of smart phones available as everyone under the age of 16 gets booted of social media and the net in general.
Attention genius author (Score:2)
If you own the equipment at end of term, it's a finance plan. If you don't own it, it's a lease.
Not that hard, not that weird.
Apple's wet dream (Score:4, Interesting)
You'll rent your hardware from us. You won't be able to buy it. Just like the Bell System did with Western Electric telephones before 1984.
You'll own nothing and you will be happy.
Re: (Score:2)
people in the PC business have done this as well, just as predatory as rent-a-center was back in the day (are they still around?).
Gamers Nexus exposed it. here is the resutl [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om7qcxggZJQ [youtube.com]
But it didnt stop others from going this route. [2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyQwAhppWj8 [youtube.com]
as that is the end goal of these techbro oligarchs...
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om7qcxggZJQ
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyQwAhppWj8
Re: (Score:2)
Ya, this is a BAD idea. If you can't afford the phone, don't buy it, and certainly don't rent it. In the majority of cases someone might consider this, I can only see it ending badly, and I can think of a few people who would jump at this opportunity.
Re: (Score:2)
Ultimately, how bad of a deal this turns out to be hinges on how much worse it screws you compared against buying a phone and then trading it back in for Apple's perpetually lowball trade-in values. Upgrade-itis is expensive.
Re: (Score:2)
That's also fair, I don't trade my phone in, I use it until it dies.
Re: (Score:2)
Is Apple still allowing purchases?