alt Hacker News> 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]
Replies
fckgw • today at 6:30 PM
The new Apple Upgrade is also 0%, but has lower monthly payments and a balloon payment at the end, like a typical lease. It's not just cost / 24mo.
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.