Is the Apple Upgrade Program a Downgrade? ⭐

Say what you will about Apple, but it's consistently offered high-quality hardware that lasts and is supported for years. And while the company mostly stuck exclusively to the premium end of whatever markets it competes in until fairly recently, you got what you paid for, and Apple's prices haven't been any higher than those of similar premium offerings from the competition. Plus, the value of the Apple ecosystem is an indisputable fact, with the one caveat that you need to buy a lot of Apple gear--and pay for Apple services--to see the biggest advantages.

Yes, there are multiple instances in which Apple had to be talked off the luxury cliff that doomed Steve Jobs' NeXT, like the overly expensive and over-designed Power Mac G4 Cube, the initial luxury models of the Apple Watch, and the Vision Pro disaster it still hasn't addressed fully. But there are also multiple instances in which Apple didn't foist stupidly expensive products on unsuspecting customers, like the entire iPod range, the iPhone and Apple Watch SE models, and, most recently, the MacBook Neo. This could just be a byproduct of the company's success, in that it has saturated the premium parts of the markets it competes in but still needs to find growth somewhere. But none of that matters. Apple has found ways over the years to open up its ecosystems of hardware and services to an ever-growing customer base that includes those who might otherwise be shut out financially.

Back in 2015, for example, Apple introduced the iPhone Upgrade Program as a way to lower the cost of purchasing its most popular product. This program was a byproduct of its time. Wireless carriers were moving away from the subsidized phone sales model that ensured customers who weren't paying attention would continue paying monthly fees for a device they had already paid off. And the cost of buying an iPhone outright, then in a $650 to $950 range that we'd all love to have back today, was beyond the means of most consumers.

I really liked the iPhone Upgrade Program at the time because it solved the problems of the time. You could buy a new unlocked iPhone, pay a monthly bill, and then optionally get a new iPhone a year later and keep paying. Or, you could just keep using it, pay that bill for two years, and then own the device outright when that timeframe concluded. This program included the then-new AppleCare+ service, which raised the price overall but was an understandable requirement. In short, the Apple Upgrade Program made sense for Apple and for its customers at the time, and it was thus a good value. And, as important for this discussion, it was in keeping with Apple's pursuit of quality.

Today, over a decade later, things have changed. Too many things. We have the AI infrastructure build-out that is ruining our industry and threatening to derail our economy and financial futures. We have the component crisis triggered by that AI build-out driving up prices everywhere, but most notably in our...