iOS 27 Code Suggests Apple Could Restrict Leased Devices After Missed Payments (9to5mac.com)
- Reference: 0184588750
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/26/07/22/2050240/ios-27-code-suggests-apple-could-restrict-leased-devices-after-missed-payments
- Source link: https://9to5mac.com/2026/07/21/ios-27-code-suggests-apple-could-restrict-leased-devices-after-missed-payments/
> The code describes a system called App Managed Features, which allows an authorized financing or provider app to enroll an iPhone and perform ongoing status checks. If the contract is no longer in good standing, Apple's system services can place the iPhone in "Restricted Mode," which blocks access to most apps until the payment or contract issue is resolved, while keeping a small set of apps available. The fixed allowlist currently found in the iOS 27 beta includes: Accessibility Reader, App Store, Health, Magnifier, Phone, Clock, Settings, Wallet, Passwords, and the Restricted Mode interface itself.
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> Apps that can send critical alerts, such as Messages, Home, and certain medication or safety apps, may also remain accessible. However, the provider appears to have some control over those exceptions. The code does not appear to cancel, suspend, or otherwise modify App Store subscriptions associated with blocked apps. As a result, a subscription could continue billing even while access to its app is restricted.
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> Additionally, there isn't a fixed number of missed payments that automatically triggers the restrictions. The financing provider's app decides when to lock the device based on its own policies. Finally, the new framework also introduces a new type of activation lock called "Partner Finance Lock," which is meant to prevent users from erasing, reselling, or stripping a restricted device for parts.
[1] https://9to5mac.com/2026/07/21/ios-27-code-suggests-apple-could-restrict-leased-devices-after-missed-payments/
[2] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/07/22/1958256/apple-partners-with-klarna-to-offer-iphones-macs-on-a-subscription-basis
So an improvement? (Score:5, Insightful)
As opposed to Appleâ(TM)s prior policy of restricting fully paid for devices after customers disobediently failed to upgrade when Apple wanted them to?
Re: So an improvement? (Score:3, Insightful)
Nah, they will keep slowing down old devices with new features users didn't ask for in order to induce additional sales
Re: (Score:1)
> Appleâ(TM)s
-posted from my iPhone
Eww (Score:2)
Why do I feel like at some point all the hardware will go to subscription only rather than as an option.
Re: (Score:2)
You already barely own your hardware today and the right to use it is already at the whim of companies.
iPhone/Android both - activation requires a check-in server and authorization. If that server is down (or denies you) you basically own a useless brick.
Just because something-aaS is free doesn't mean it's already out of your ownership.
1000% hate.
Re: (Score:2)
It isn't just iOS/Android devices, online product activation has made its way into all sorts of things.
Awhile back Bird decided to discontinue their connected services for some of the retail e-scooters they'd sold. If you didn't have your scooter charged up when the command was sent to leave it in a permanently unlocked state, you now own a brick.
Aren’t we already doing hardware subscriptio (Score:2)
> Why do I feel like at some point all the hardware will go to subscription only rather than as an option.
Given how common it is for people to upgrade their phone as soon as they payoff the old one, how are we not already there? :-)
Similar to car repo devices (Score:3)
Sounds a lot like remote-disable devices for cars, so the repo man has an easier job.
When those first came out, some of them allowed the car to drive, but would honk the horn to shame the driver, but now I think they all just disable the engine. Imagining the Apple version of that is entertaining... it could chose your emoji for you, blast Nickelback when it detects you're in church, or start sending your photos to random contacts until you pay up.
Re: (Score:2)
> Sounds a lot like remote-disable devices for cars, so the repo man has an easier job.
> When those first came out, some of them allowed the car to drive, but would honk the horn to shame the driver, but now I think they all just disable the engine.
The so called "payment assurance devices" have generally moved to disabling the starter, and the GPS transmitter tells the repo man where to collect the vehicle.
Ownership and the Next Check. (Score:4, Interesting)
> ..to enroll an iPhone and perform ongoing status checks. If the contract is no longer in good standing..
I'm more concerned about how it behaves when there is no need for a contract at all.
If someone walks in the door with an MSRP-amount of cash in their hands ready to buy outright a device that is normally sold to a loan-licker who loves a new fashionable lease, how exactly is said device re-configured to ensure an owner is NOT treated like a debt-owing pseudo-suspect?
Now let's clarify the definition of ownership again. Because the next Orwellian "check" they will make when financial fuckery isn't enough to censor and control you, is your social credit score..
Re: (Score:1)
We already have social credit scores in the USA.
ICE can murder you in the street and face zero repercussions. If you say bad words about ICE they show up at your workplace and demand you delete it. [1]https://www.syracuse.com/news/... [syracuse.com]
[1] https://www.syracuse.com/news/2026/06/federal-agents-track-down-syracuse-woman-demand-she-remove-instagram-post-about-ice.html
Party like it's 1961 (Score:2)
Make IBM Great Again: go back to .. leasing computers?!
Re: (Score:2)
> Make IBM Great Again: go back to .. leasing computers?!
Recent tax reforms removed the incentive for that, at least for moderately priced computers.
Apple Fan No More (Score:3)
I used to like Apple as the scrappy underdog giving people tools and free software other companies charged for. Now Apple is heading toward being another greedy corporation nickel and diming their users for money without adding value. It is bizarre Apple would spend time, money, and expertise developing a Tech feature to help creditors go after its customers and users, particularly given its recent software failures. Apple used to be morally anchored under Steve Jobs as going after the big guy while looking out for the little guy . Or maybe it was just good PR. But at least it worked. Now Apple is helping its fellow big guy as a big guy and throwing its products and customers under the bus and does not care.
Apple sold out, man (Score:3)
That's the problem with winning. You become The Man.
That isn't just semantics. Your interests change - you become more (small-c) conservative, defensive measures become much more important, etc. because the next incremental customer is worth much less than keeping what you have. And the risk is real - everyone wants to be king.
In Apple's case, there's also that it is now a fully post-Jobs company, and Jobs was uniquely responsible for what Apple was. His remaining influence is in the heads of the graybea
Re: (Score:3)
> I used to like Apple as the scrappy underdog giving people tools and free software other companies charged for.
They never did so. The cost of that software was embedded in the price of the computer. That’s partly why Macs are historically more expensive.
Tough to feel sorry for fools. (Score:2)
If you can't afford a phone for cash that's a hint to improve your financial management including not buying phones you can't afford.
Re: (Score:3)
I've been in telecom for most of my career, often dealing with apps and test phones so I've run the gamut of the cheapest to the greatest most expensive phones as test devices and personal devices over the course of the last couple of decades.
Simple advice that people who need it don't want to hear: for years now it's been possible to get a really, really usable phone for $30 (used to be $20). I'm not talking about a flip phone, I mean somehting running a reasinable enough android version with reasona
Fashion faux pas (Score:2)
But buying a pay-as-you-go Samsung phone three years out of date at Walmart is major, bg time, fashion faux pas.
Its like the K-mart athletic shoes with 4 stripes on the side.
Carriers already do something similar (Score:2)
If you have carrier-financed phone and don't pay your wireless bill, they can blacklist your IMEI.
Tell me again (Score:3)
Tell me again how Apple is so much better than other tech vampire companies. Oh that's right, Apple sets the standard.
Re: (Score:2)
> Tell me again how Apple is so much better than other...
You get a better product. Its how they survived for nearly 50 years.
That's....insane (Score:1)
I would be sprinting away from this as quickly as possible if I was an investor.
Re: (Score:2)
> I would be sprinting away from this as quickly as possible if I was an investor.
The owners (stockholders) of Apple probably see additional sales (which in this case will be the leasing company) as a win.
Re: (Score:2)
It’s for the low credit crowd. Shady car lots install something similar that disables your car if you stop paying.
Re: (Score:2)
> Shady car lots install something similar that disables your car if you stop paying.
Yeah, [1]about that... [wired.com]
[1] https://www.wired.com/story/a-device-hidden-in-cars-across-the-us-leaves-them-vulnerable-to-hacking-and-paralysis-patch-it-now/
Re: (Score:2)
> It’s for the low credit crowd. Shady car lots install something similar that disables your car if you stop paying.
Shady car lots often sell cars that disable themselves even if you do keep paying.
What’s wrong with leasing . (Score:2)
What’s wrong with leasing? Lets say you have a short term need, you lease a Mac for the short time frame.
I’ve had companies do this for specialized equipment I need while working on embedded projects. It seemed weird since they could have outright bought the thing for the fees they paid to lease it for a non-trivial period. When I asked about this they told me there were tax benefits to leasing it versus an outright purchase.
Re: (Score:2)
> What’s wrong with leasing? Lets say you have a short term need, you lease a Mac for the short time frame. I’ve had companies do this for specialized equipment I need while working on embedded projects. It seemed weird since they could have outright bought the thing for the fees they paid to lease it for a non-trivial period. When I asked about this they told me there were tax benefits to leasing it versus an outright purchase.
Leasing can be deducted as an operational expense this year on your taxes. Purchasing requires using depreciation which (depend on the item) may require deducting a partial expense over many many years.
It is one of the (many) absurdities of our tax code that results in "interesting" choices by corporations to save money today to spend more tomorrow.
Re: (Score:2)
Recent tax reforms can let you expense equipment in one year below a certain cost threshold. Mac mini, should be able to expense it this year. Mac Studio, probably going to be a depreciating multi-year asset.