Last week Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) asked how many customers can the new Apple Upgrade (leasing) program reach?
At least for iPhones, the research group concluded it can’t get very far into the Apple customer base, since the vast majority of iPhones in the US are sold by the carriers. Apple Upgrade is available only at Apple Stores and Apple.com.
Now CIRP has looked at those Apple retail customers to see what Apple is trying to accomplish with Apple Upgrade. It’s available to a relatively small portion of iPhone buyers, but it could still make a difference in how that group of customers buys their phones, according to the research group.
Last month Apple announced a new “purchase” program for many of its devices. In partnership with buy-now-pay-later provider Klarna, customers can now lease an iPhone, iPad, Mac computer, or Apple Watch. Only at Apple retail and called Apple Upgrade, it replaces the confusingly similarly named iPhone Upgrade program and the iPhone Payments programs, two separate plans for replacing an iPhone and for paying installments.
As it turns out, the 14% of iPhone buyers who obtain their iPhone from Apple retail are somewhat different from the vast majority that buy their new iPhones elsewhere, primarily the mobile carrier retail operations. CIRP says this means that Apple may be on to something by approaching their direct retail customers first.
From the CIRP report: Some Apple retail customers may be especially open to a leasing plan, and others may be a very desirable target for changing their iPhone ownership behavior. Both groups are less prevalent in the non-Apple retail customer base.
Specifically, 8% of customers that buy their new iPhone from Apple retail are super-fast, one-year upgraders (Chart 1). At the other end of the spectrum, 42% of Apple retail iPhone buyers waited three years or longer to upgrade to a new iPhone. Both extremes are significantly less common for iPhone customers at other retail channels, and both may be targets for Apple Upgrade.
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