Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain access to a device for the subscription period.
The subscription-based iPhone offering would make it easier for customers without the funds for an expensive iPhone to make monthly payments rather than purchasing upfront. Apple already has the iPhone Upgrade Program that splits the cost of a device across a 12 or 24 month period, but the planned subscription service would have been an ongoing monthly fee rather than payments over a set number of months.
After two years of work on the project, Apple apparently ceased development in recent months due to regulatory concerns, software bugs, and other issues. The team that was developing the subscription service was disbanded and reassigned to other projects. Apple has done some streamlining of its payment offerings this year, shutting down the Apple Pay Later pay-in-installments option that was available for less than a year.
Benchmarks for the new MacBook Neo surfaced today, and unsurprisingly, CPU performance is almost identical to the iPhone 16 Pro. The MacBook Neo uses the same 6-core A18 Pro chip that was first introduced in the iPhone 16 Pro, but it has one fewer GPU core.
The MacBook Neo earned a single-core score of 3461 and a multi-core score of 8668, along with a Metal score of 31286.
Here's how the...
Apple this week unveiled seven products, including an iPhone 17e, an iPad Air with the M4 chip, updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, a new Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and an all-new MacBook Neo that starts at just $599.
iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's A19 chip, MagSafe for magnetic wireless charging and magnetic...
Apple is planning to launch an all-new "MacBook Ultra" model this year, featuring an OLED display, touchscreen, and a higher price point, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.
Gurman revealed the information in his latest "Power On" newsletter. While Apple has been widely expected to launch new M6-series MacBook Pro models with OLED displays, touchscreen functionality, and a new, thinner design...
