Apple is preparing to launch a lease-to-own program for its hardware in partnership with the buy-now-pay-later specialist Klarna, according to a Bloomberg report published July 21 and corroborated by Reuters Bloomberg. The program, internally framed as “Apple Upgrade,” is expected to go live on July 28 and would let customers take home iPhones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watches while paying across multi-year terms rather than upfront TechCrunch.
The structure mirrors the device-leasing models already common among US carriers, but under Apple’s own brand. Bloomberg reports that iPhone and Apple Watch leases would run up to 24 months, while Mac and iPad leases could extend to 36 months. At the end of the term, customers could keep the device, return it, or roll into a newer model — the upgrade path is what gives the program its name Reuters.
Apple already operates a similar offering, the iPhone Upgrade Program, which bundles a yearly device swap with AppleCare+. But that program is narrower — iPhones only, and tied to carrier financing in many markets. The new Klarna-backed effort is pitched as broader and more inclusive, covering the rest of the hardware lineup and, crucially, removing the requirement to sign up through a wireless carrier TechCrunch.
The timing is not accidental. Apple has spent much of 2026 navigating what industry watchers have taken to calling “RAMageddon” — an industry-wide shortage of memory chips that has pushed component costs higher across the board. The AI boom is the prime suspect: data-center operators are absorbing so much memory supply that there is less left for consumer hardware, and manufacturers are passing the cost along TechCrunch. Apple recently signaled it would raise prices on several products, and a lease-to-own scheme makes those higher sticker prices easier for customers to swallow by spreading them across dozens of monthly payments.
For Klarna, the deal is a marquee win. The Swedish fintech has spent the last two years repositioning itself from a pure BNPL checkout button toward a broader consumer payments and shopping platform, and anchoring Apple’s device financing would put it in front of hundreds of millions of high-intent shoppers. It also deepens Klarna’s foothold in the US market, where regulators have grown wary of opaque short-term credit.
The move is not without risk for buyers. Lease-to-own arrangements spread cost, but they can also raise the total amount paid once interest, fees, and the “transactions will incur an additional cost in some cases” caveat Bloomberg noted are factored in. Customers who upgrade every year under the program may end up paying perpetually for hardware they never own outright. Apple’s existing iPhone Upgrade Program already drew criticism for exactly this dynamic, and a wider version sharpens the trade-off: lower friction today, higher lifetime cost.
What is confirmed and what is not matters here. Bloomberg and Reuters base their reporting on people familiar with the plans; TechCrunch says it reached out to both Apple and Klarna, and neither had commented at publication time. That leaves open questions about pricing, credit checks, late-payment handling, and whether the program will be available outside the US at launch. The July 28 date, too, comes from the same sourced reporting rather than an Apple announcement.
If it lands as described, Apple Upgrade represents a strategic pivot for a company that has historically sold premium hardware at premium prices and left financing to banks and carriers. Bringing leasing in-house — and branding it as an “upgrade” rather than a loan — reframes the purchase as a subscription to Apple’s ecosystem. For a hardware maker squeezed by memory costs and flattening upgrade cycles, that is a logical, if telling, response.
Bottom line: Apple’s reported Klarna-powered lease-to-own program would let customers finance iPhones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watches over two to three years starting July 28, softening the blow of higher prices while locking buyers deeper into Apple’s ecosystem — provided the fine print on total cost proves as friendly as the monthly one.
