Apple just turned iPhones into a subscription. Connectus got there years ago.

Apple has spent nearly two decades selling the idea of ownership. You bought an iPhone, it was yours, and when you were ready you traded it in and bought the next one. That changed this summer.

Apple’s new Apple Upgrade programme, launched in the United States and delivered in partnership with Klarna, lets customers lease an iPhone, Mac, iPad or Apple Watch on a monthly payment instead of buying it outright. Terms run from 12 to 36 months depending on the device, monthly payments start from $17.99 for an iPhone, and at the end of the term customers can upgrade, pay a final fee to keep the device, or simply hand it back. AppleCare and Apple Trade In slot into the same journey, so the whole relationship of buy, protect, upgrade, return is designed to run on autopilot.

It’s a big moment for Apple. It is not a new idea. It’s the idea Connectus built its FundIT service around, years before “hardware-as-a-service” became an industry buzzword.

Why Apple is doing this now

Apple’s own reasoning for the shift lines up closely with what we see every day in the business technology market:

• Devices cost more and last longer. Premium hardware keeps getting more expensive, generational upgrades feel smaller, and the average smartphone replacement cycle has stretched to roughly two and a half years people are holding on to what they have rather than paying out for a marginal improvement.
• Component costs are rising. Memory and other key components are under pressure partly because of demand from AI infrastructure, pushing manufacturer costs and eventually customer prices upward.
• Budgeting matters more than ownership. Faced with a four-figure upfront cost, a predictable monthly payment is simply an easier decision to make and to plan around.

Apple’s answer was to stop asking people to buy a phone and start offering them guaranteed access to a current one. It’s the same shift the software industry made when it moved from perpetual licences to subscriptions .  Apple is now applying that logic to the physical device sitting in your pocket.

Connectus saw this coming

That’s precisely the thinking behind Connectus FundIT, which we built to solve the same problem for our clients long before “subscription hardware” was a headline: businesses need modern, secure, well-supported technology, but very few want to tie up capital buying it outright, and fewer still want to be caught out re-financing it every time interest rates or costs move.

FundIT extends flexible, predictable finance across the full range of Connectus’ Connect–Protect–Collaborate managed services ,  not just hardware, but the software licences and professional services (design, installation and support) that go with it. In practice, that means:

• No deposit, and nothing to pay until everything is installed and working. Clients aren’t paying for equipment that isn’t yet delivering value.
• Fixed, predictable payments for the full term of the agreement, so clients are protected from interest rate rises, inflation spikes, or future cost increases , a very different proposition to a variable lease or a large one-off capital purchase.
• Access to the latest equipment at an affordable monthly cost, keeping premises, systems and employees current and secure without a five-figure invoice.
• One agreement covering IT and telephony equipment, software licences, and the professional services to design, install and support them the whole stack financed as a single, simple relationship rather than a patchwork of purchase orders and leases.

As our CEO Roy Shelton put it when FundIT launched: “I am delighted to help our customers, partners, and new businesses that we can help ease the cost of new equipment investments which they are considering but may be trying to retain cash reserves during this difficult period of financial insecurity. Connectus remains acutely aware of the challenges our clients are facing and remain committed to providing solutions that deliver the very best level of service at a price they can afford and sustain.”

The model that’s driven Connectus forward

FundIT hasn’t just been a nice-to-have add-on , it’s changed the shape of our client relationships. Instead of a one-off transaction every three or four years, FundIT turns technology into an ongoing, predictable service: clients get the confidence to invest in better equipment sooner, Connectus gets a longer-term relationship built on continuous delivery rather than a single sale, and both sides avoid the stop-start cycle of “make do until the next big capital spend” that leaves businesses running on ageing, less secure kit.

That recurring, service-led model is the same thinking that sits behind Connectus’ wider Connect–Protect–Collaborate approach  and it’s exactly the direction the wider technology market is now moving in. Apple, the world’s largest device manufacturer, has just told its own customers that access matters more than ownership. We’ve been building that promise into how we finance and deliver technology for our clients for years.

What this means for your business

Apple Upgrade is a signal, not an isolated experiment. If the company that built its brand on owning the newest iPhone now thinks leasing is the better model, it’s a fair bet that hardware-as-a-service becomes the default across the technology sector — laptops, networking equipment, telephony systems, the lot.

The businesses that benefit most will be the ones that get ahead of that shift rather than reacting to it: predictable monthly costs instead of lumpy capital spend, technology that’s always current rather than gradually ageing, and one flexible agreement instead of a stack of separate purchases and renewals to manage.

That’s what FundIT has been delivering for Connectus clients for years. Apple has just shown the rest of the market why it makes sense.

Want to know how FundIT could work for your business?
Get in touch with Connectus to find out how we can help you finance your next technology upgrade with no deposit, and nothing to pay until it’s installed and working.