So they’re coming to terms that nobody wants to buy what is basically the same kind of phone now a days for higher price… and so now they want to scam people by “upgrading” to what they think will be cheaper when in reality, it’s probably not…
I waited 8 year to get a newer phoner that was better than my previous phone in all respects at the same price. And even then it was mostly a convenience upgrade because my old phone was still working well.
Why the hell would it be worth it to lease a phone?
It depends a lot on how heavily you use your phones. I’m a heavy user and my batteries degrade heavily in 2-3 years. That leads to overheating, poor performance, and of course poor battery life.
The cost of replacing a battery is high for most phones. Sometimes higher than buying a new phone at a similar level of performance.
I’m doing 1-2 battery cycles per day. A light user might go through battery cycles at a quarter of my rate, and would not have those problems.
Right to repair solves that, by mandating against designs which make simple replacements exorbitantly expensive for no good reason.
You will own nothing and like it
You should buy it. Every time. Fuck subscriptions.
some subscriptions are fine though, like email or a vpn.
you could argue there should be no need for a vpn but… it is what it is
Services as subscriptions: fine. They are ongoing agreements that require an unspecifiable amount of labor, it makes sense to pay as you go.
Subscription goods? Fuck that. If I am in posession of it and responsible for maintaining it in a specific state of operation and quality, I basically own it anyway.
Charging me monthly for a pocket-sized computer with the added stipulations that the seller gets to dictate what I’m allowed to do with it, probably installs spyware on it (on top of the OEM and OS spyware), and if I break it (or otherwise violate the terms of use) I have to buy it anyway and they still get to keep it? They’ve basically reinvented a mix of payphones and library PCs, but more invasive and more expensive
The way I read that title: Apple and Samsung stopped innovating, now sales aren’t growing, so it’s time for enshittification.
If your current plan is to buy the latest and greatest phone today, sell it in two years, and then buy a new top of the line phone, then Apple’s new lease program looks like an attractive option. They’ve priced it such that, over the course of the lease, you end up paying about the cost of purchasing the phone minus its resale value. Leasing looks convenient because it saves you from having to find a buyer.
It also keeps phones out of the secondary market, which benefits Apple. Off lease phones are used for warranty replacements, or sold as refurbished through official storefronts instead of person to person.
Once Apple’s leasing program kills off a competing used phone market, they can also raise the cost of the lease to reflect that, which also benefits Apple over the longer term.
Apple would be stupid not to try leasing their phones.
There’s always going to be a robust used market for phones that were purchased outright, to be resold on a different cycle than every 2 years (plenty of rich people changing phones every year, and plenty of people replacing on a 3, 4, 5, or 6 year cycle). You can expect the market to basically settle on a curve where it depreciates along a predictable rate.
Leases don’t really change that, any more than leases changed the market for used cars, or even certified pre-owned by the same dealers and organized by the same manufacturers who sell new cars.
There will be times that the predefined lease terms will unexpectedly prove to be either beneficial or detrimental to the consumer. Sometimes external factors will affect the entire used market, like currency issues, or component pricing issues (imagine if RAM prices dramatically swing again for new devices in a way that affects the value of the already-sold devices out in the world), where the predefined lease prices turn into a windfall for someone. Like in 2021 or so when expiring car leases allows the lessee to buy out the car at the end of the lease for much cheaper than the car itself was worth.
It’s generally going to be a less than ideal financial decision to lease, but it also won’t collapse the used device market and it won’t be that far off the practice of selling your old phone when you buy a new one.
Who would’ve thought consumers, in an economy propped up by an AI bubble, wouldn’t exactly be risking their financial stability for last year’s model bút with AI bloat- and spyware, or some extremely vulnerable folding party trick? Apple’s partnership with Klarna should set off alarm bells with regards to demographic being targeted; as for the intent of the buy back programs: furthering control over the second hand market. The AI circle jerk has created the perfect conditions for this anti-ownership model, and the innovatively stale industry is sparing no time to capitalize off it (Samsung for both the consumer- and enterprise segment). It’s also remarkable timing of the EU to announce plans on “right to repair”, which is likely to exacerbate this very problem.
They can buy my left nut.
I will not rent critical items.
There has been a large push to enter a subscription for eyeglasses, the large firms here keep pushing and pushing to rent glasses.
Fuck no, I refuse to have my eyesight be dependent on having to keep paying.
Same for music, I buy all my music through iTunes, I have never used Spotify, I refuse to be put in a situation where I am in financial trouble and I loose access to my music.
This is the same crap, I need a phone to be an active member of modern society, I will not rent that access.
Fuck that.
The only thing prompting phone replacement for me was battery life. And nearly all phones have shit ability to replace batteries (for now - EU rules incoming).
I bought a Fairphone 6 with /e/OS. I’ve left Big Tech behind. And I have a phone where I can easily replace the components. I don’t want to swap devices for 4-5 years, which makes ownership far more cost effective than leasing.
Also – with leasing, what happens when the renter is done with it? E waste, just like we have today.
Subscriptions were supposed to replace cable, then software, then heated seats, now phones. Funny how every innovation somehow ends with paying forever. If your business model needs me renting hardware I already carry everywhere, maybe the product isn’t improving fast enough to justify buying it?
No, and also fuck off with that.
Not beating the WEF’s “you will own nothing and you’ll be happy” conspiracy aren’t they
