, a lead Morgan Stanley analyst believes this would be a broad business shift away from iPhone shipments to installed base monetization if, of course, those rumors end up being true.Lead Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty wrote that if the rumored hardware subscription is true, that would shift the Apple investor narrative from transactional to recurring sales.
Well, a subscription program for the iPhone could have multiple offerings at different pricing tiers, as speculation goes. It is possible that Apple would have a lower tier that offers a legacy iPhone every 24 months, while higher tiers could probably give access to newer devices and even other perks.
Well, what are really the benefits of this subscription model for Apple, according to the analyst? Huberty notes that this model could reduce hardware replacement cycles. It would also be beneficial for Apple in increasing the amount of money a single user spends, and also shift more customers to a direct-to-customer model, therefore bypassing carriers and retailers.