Apple Lays Groundwork for an iPhone Subscription

According to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, an iPhone subscription may not be ways off.

The Chief Executive wasn’t against the idea on a conference call this week, and suggested that the company is working on new ways to pay for iPhones on a monthly basis.

“We’re cognizant that there are lots of users out there that want a sort of a recurring payment like that,” Cook said.

Some people have dubbed an iPhone subscription as Apple Prime, following Amazon’s Amazon Prime.

As part of the program, Apple would bundle hardware upgrades with services like iCloud storage or Apple TV+ content and hardware for a single monthly fee.

Analyst Toni Sacconagi asked the company during its earnings call about the idea of a prime subscription and Apple CEO Tim Cook did not shoot down the idea.

″In terms of hardware as a service or as a bundle, if you will, there are customers today that essentially view the hardware like that because they’re on upgrade plans and so forth,” Cook said. “So to some degree that exists today.”
“My perspective is that will grow in the future to larger numbers. It will grow disproportionately,” he continued.
Cook added, “We’re cognizant that there are lots of users out there that want a sort of a recurring payment like that and the receipt of new products on some sort of standard kind of basis and we’re committed to make that easier to do than perhaps it is today.”

It was this week that Apple reported Sept quarter (fiscal fourth quarter) earnings per share of $3.03 versus analyst estimates of $2.83 and revenue of $64.04 billion, compared to estimates of $63.02 billion.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and have not been compensated for this article.