The Apple Upgrade Leasing Program Bets That Consumers Won’t Blink At ~$1 Per Day For A Brand-New iPhone Or Mac
Apple’s brand-new leasing program, dubbed Apple Upgrade, goes big on the idea that most consumers won’t mind shelling out a tiny amount on a per-day basis just to use a new Apple device, negating the deleterious impact of the ongoing memory ‘chipflation’ in the process.
Mark Gurman: “Instead of asking customers to justify spending more than $1,000 on a phone or laptop, it’s asking whether they can afford roughly a dollar a day”
As we reported recently, Apple has just launched Apple Upgrade, a new device leasing program for “iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac, and iPad available on the Apple Store online, in the Apple Store app, and at Apple Store locations in the United States.”
The program offers 12- and 24-month leasing options for iPhone and Apple Watch, and 24- and 36-month leasing options for Mac and iPad, with leasing prices starting as low as $17.99 per month for iPhone, $11.99 for Apple Watch, $24.99 for Mac, and $11.99 for iPad.
What’s more, you can further reduce your leasing costs by trading in your old Apple device and earn a 3 percent daily cash back when making lease payments with the Apple Card.
As for specifics, you can now lease a 256GB iPhone 17 Pro for just $45.99 per month on a 12-month term, or $31.99 per month on a 24-month term.
Now, the famous Apple-focused tipster, Mark Gurman, has just penned his thoughts on the program, theorizing that Apple Upgrade can help power the next trillion-dollar addition to the Cupertino-based tech giant’s valuation, while offloading the attendant financial and regulatory burden onto Klarna.
In fact, Gurman thinks the program essentially sidesteps the consumer calculus around increasingly expensive tech devices:
“Instead of asking customers to justify spending more than $1,000 on a phone or laptop, it’s asking whether they can afford roughly a dollar a day.”
The rationale here is simple: a few extra dollars per month is a lot easier to handle than trying to create the requisite fiscal space for buying a $1,000+ device, with the added benefit of locking in this subset of customers within Apple’s yearly upgrade cycle. Of course, it remains to be seen if the Apple Upgrade program lives up to its expectations as far as the tech giant’s lofty expectations are concerned.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025.
As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover.
When I’m not writing, I’m traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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