Starting today Apple is offering the iPhone upgrade plan for online purchases, so if you’re iPhone-obsessed but don’t live near an Apple Store, you can still get your Apple fix every year.
Pricing starts at $32.41 per month for the 16GB iPhone 6S, or the base model of future iPhones when they arrive. Unfortunately the plan is not available for the recently announced iPhone SE, however that’s likely due to the fact that the iPhone SE probably won’t be upgraded every year. Pricing for the larger iPhone 6S Plus starts at $36.58 per month.
While plenty of carriers offer similar plans, Apple’s includes some nice extras, such as AppleCare+ and the ability to be among the first to try out the new iPhone each year. The upgrade plan is available for those purchasing devices on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.
The fact that the plan is now available online brings it to a huge range of people — while Apple is expanding its brick-and-mortar stores extremely quickly, the fact is that many in rural areas simply won’t have access to an Apple Store anytime soon.
Initial data suggested that the upgrade plan helped push an additional 250,000 iPhone units during the holiday quarter. Bringing the system online could do far more than that — something that Apple is likely hoping for, especially given that it has experienced a drop in iPhone sales of late. In fact, the company is now expected to post its worst quarter in over a decade as a result of this decline.
