Apple launches Apple Upgrade, a device leasing program with Klarna starting at $17.99 a month

Apple on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, unveiled a new device leasing program called Apple Upgrade, developed in partnership with fintech Klarna. The program is available at physical and online Apple Stores in the United States and covers four product categories: iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac and iPad.

Monthly payments start at $17.99 for iPhone, $11.99 for Apple Watch, $11.99 for iPad and $24.99 for Mac. Terms vary by device: iPhone and Apple Watch can be leased for 12 or 24 months, while Mac and iPad offer 24- or 36-month terms. Apple says no security deposit is required and that applying involves only a 'soft' credit check, which does not affect the applicant's credit score.

At the end of the lease period, the customer has three options: sign a new contract to take home an upgraded device, buy the device already in use, or simply return it with no further commitment. Payments and schedules are managed through the Klarna app. In addition, those who hand in a current device via the Apple Trade In program can lower their monthly payment, and payments made with Apple Card earn 3% back in Daily Cash.

With the launch of Apple Upgrade, the company is discontinuing its old iPhone Upgrade Program and the iPhone Payments system in the United States. Customers already enrolled in the previous program will be able to move to Apple Upgrade, finance through Apple Card Monthly Installments, buy the device outright, or turn to carrier financing. Karen Rasmussen, vice president of Apple's online store, described the initiative as 'a more flexible way to pay for the products they love,' according to the company's statement. Not every model is eligible: the iPhone 16, the MacBook Neo and other devices are excluded from the program.

The announcement comes just a month after Apple raised the starting price of five MacBook and iPad models by between $100 and $300, attributing the change to a sharp rise in memory and storage costs. Those increases came after comments from CEO Tim Cook, who described the component cost environment as a 'once-in-a-century flood' and said it was no longer viable for the company to fully absorb that impact. Various analysts expect further iPhone price increases when the next generation is unveiled in September.

The original article points to a key element of the commercial approach: by communicating a monthly payment rather than the device's full price, Apple shifts consumer attention away from the total cost of the equipment. The iPhone 17 Pro is a good illustration of that difference: its outright purchase price is $1,099, while leasing costs $31.99 a month for two years or $45.99 a month for one year, according to Apple's own figures.

In terms of the corporate calendar, Apple is scheduled to report third-quarter results on Thursday, as reported by CNBC, placing the program's launch just ahead of a significant date for assessing the impact of these measures on the company's sales figures.

From an analytical perspective, the move is significant for several reasons. First, it formalizes a shift toward the 'hardware subscription' model that tech companies have been exploring for years: instead of selling a product, they sell ongoing access to it, which favors recurring revenue and customer loyalty within a constant upgrade cycle. Second, the choice of Klarna as a partner is not trivial: it is a company associated with the 'buy now, pay later' (BNPL) model, a segment that has raised regulatory and consumer-protection concerns in several markets over the risk of over-indebtedness, although the article does not detail any additional safeguards beyond the soft credit check. Third, the timing of the launch —coinciding with price increases already applied to Mac and iPad and with expectations of a costlier iPhone— suggests that leasing may act as a psychological buffer against the rising real cost of the devices, as the article itself explicitly notes when comparing the purchase price with the lease price of the iPhone 17 Pro.

Taken together, the piece describes a structural change in how Apple markets its main products in the United States, against a backdrop of pressure on component costs (memory and storage) that the company itself has called exceptional, and which appears to be reshaping both its pricing policy and its consumer financing schemes.