I’ve been hearing this all day. Makes no sense to me.
Subscription iPhones?
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I guess it depends on how often you upgrade, the residual value, the "time cost" for selling in the open market vs. trading in with Apple. I sort of understand the idea that you're always "paying" for a phone, some mix of actual cost + depreciation.
If I could just get on a $50/month plan and have a new iPhone every year? I'd do it, especially if they rolled in some AC
If I could just get on a $50/month plan and have a new iPhone every year? I'd do it, especially if they rolled in some AC
Eric
Mama's lil stinker
Right, with the upgrade program it already feels like we're on a subscription but I like the fact that I don't have to if I don't want to. The annual updates are incremental and underwhelming at best, I'm still running an 11 and waiting for a real reason to upgrade so I don't want to be pinned into it that way.I guess it depends on how often you upgrade, the residual value, the "time cost" for selling in the open market vs. trading in with Apple. I sort of understand the idea that you're always "paying" for a phone, some mix of actual cost + depreciation.
If I could just get on a $50/month plan and have a new iPhone every year? I'd do it, especially if they rolled in some AC
Yeah, I wonder what my actual cost has been over some extended period - like my X worked so well, I kept it through 3 update cycles (so basically 2 years for "free").
lizkat
Watching March roll out real winter
Subscribe instead of just buying a phone roughly every three or four years? No thanks.
I'll go back to a cellphone that's free with a month to month prepaid setup. Something that handles phone calls, vmail, texts and stores a contact list. I already resent paying for a smartphone that has way more camera capability than I'll ever use.
I'll go back to a cellphone that's free with a month to month prepaid setup. Something that handles phone calls, vmail, texts and stores a contact list. I already resent paying for a smartphone that has way more camera capability than I'll ever use.
I don't really understand this. There is already the iPhone Upgrade Program. I'm guessing maybe this could be more flexible like possibly allowing for shorter lengths. Like you could actually subscribe to an iPhone for 6 months or month to month or something?
SuperMatt
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You can already do this with the iPhone upgrade program.I guess it depends on how often you upgrade, the residual value, the "time cost" for selling in the open market vs. trading in with Apple. I sort of understand the idea that you're always "paying" for a phone, some mix of actual cost + depreciation.
If I could just get on a $50/month plan and have a new iPhone every year? I'd do it, especially if they rolled in some AC
Yeah, clearly you're right and there's got to be some details to this that make a difference vs. the existing iPhone Upgrade Program. Maybe it's a shorter interval (which seems excessive), maybe it includes AC+ for a lower price vs. the payment + AC + exchange/trade-in value.
Unless they're dropped the Upgrade Program, so it's buy outright or "lease".
BMW, a few others (maybe Volvo?) has been on deck with something like this as well, like a flat-rate, you can swap cars in a fairly short term, and you have some variant in models without having to worry about the exact price.
Herdfan
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I would probably still have my X had the battery not gone to
.If I could move all my texts and photos (I know you can do this but it is a PITA) over easily I would jump back to Android in a second.
I would probably still have my X had the battery not gone to
We take a ton of photos, so for us, it's nice having a little more recent camera technology. The camera(s) improvements from my X to my 13 Pro Max are substantial.
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I’m also on an 11 and it’s the first time I haven’t upgraded every other year since the first iPhone. I really don’t want the expense, but I feel like I could really use the camera upgrade, especially for macro pictures. Still, I think I’ll hold out for the next iphone at this point.
Eric
Mama's lil stinker
Yeah, I get it if you have an interest in a new feature and it seems like the camera updates are always the biggest changes. If they brought back TouchID on the Max models (somehow) I would jump on it.
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I went from every year up until the 11 Pro, then skipped the 12. I’ll likely skip the 14. I actually don’t use my phone for much other than short bursts of communication and content consumption. Now and again I’ll use the camera. Even massive iphone improvements don’t have much effect on my experience using the device.
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I'm still using a 3.5 year old 8+. Although I like the idea of a new phone, there's not actually anything wrong with mine, although I might need a battery replacement soon.
I am not the target market for this.
I am not the target market for this.
What we've done a number of times in the past was to have our two phone, one on the tick and one on the tock cycles, so like I'd have a 6, wife had a 6S, I'd get a 7, she'd get an 8, so there was always one most recent phone in the family (some of this was necessitated by iPhone dev work ...) Now we have a 3rd person with an iPhone So we can do a 3 year, revolving upgrade cycle.
So we can do a 3 year, revolving upgrade cycle. 
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I have the iPhone 11 Pro and the 12 Pro, but am skipping the 13 and we'll see what happens with the iPhone 14.
I would probably still have my X had the battery not gone to
If I could move all my texts and photos (I know you can do this but it is a PITA) over easily I would jump back to Android in a second.
You can move your photos easily with Google Photos. You can just sync them. Not sure about the text messages. Do you really have text messages that are that important?
Now that I don't have social media, outside of Twitter, that I only use for sports information I'm really not on my phone as often as I used to be. I have the 13 Pro Max and I don't plan to upgrade in the fall. I used to be one of those that upgraded every year, but I'm tired of giving Apple my money for Basic Betty upgrades each year. Nothing has that wow factor anymore when it comes to phones. My phone has been paid off so I will not be doing a subscription service. I could easily use this phone for several years.
