After two years of effort, Apple reportedly halts the iPhone hardware subscription service project
Media reports suggest that Apple has abandoned its efforts to change the way consumers purchase iPhones. If the news is true, this would be another setback for Apple's Apple Pay business following the closure of the Huabei service Pay Later earlier this year
After two years of effort without success, Apple has halted its iPhone hardware subscription service project, abandoning its attempt to change the way consumers purchase iPhones.
On December 18th, Wednesday Eastern Time, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Apple has stopped development work related to the aforementioned service. Apple's initial idea was to allow users to subscribe to an iPhone like they do with apps: paying a monthly fee and changing to a new phone every year, but this effort has recently been abandoned. The relevant project team at Apple has been disbanded, and team members have been reassigned to other projects.
Media reports previously indicated that Apple launched the iPhone hardware subscription project in 2022, planning to roll out the subscription service by the end of 2022. However, due to numerous setbacks, including software bugs and regulatory issues, the launch date for the subscription service was delayed to last year and then further postponed.
Reports on Wednesday indicated that before the iPhone subscription project was halted, all work on the project had been completely restarted.
Following the news, Apple's company representatives declined to comment on the matter. If the news is true, it would mark another setback for Apple's Apple Pay business this year.
In June of this year, Apple announced the shutdown of its buy now, pay later service, Pay Later, and would no longer offer new loans through Pay Later. At that time, it had only been a year since Apple launched the Pay Later installment loan service in the U.S. The Pay Later service allowed users to repay up to $1,000 in shopping costs in four installments, and the closure of Pay Later signifies that Apple is scaling back its expansion into financial services.
Before announcing the closure of Pay Later, Apple stated that it would integrate third-party services such as Affirm Holding and Citigroup into the new iOS 18 software, indicating that Apple is guiding consumers towards third-party programs