AppleCare+ Only As a Subscription
Starting next week, Apple’s retail stores will no longer offer AppleCare+ plans as a one-time purchase, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
Instead, he said the stores will only offer AppleCare+ as a subscription.
It was already available as a subscription, so the main effect of this change seems to be to remove the discount for purchasing multiple years up front.
Previously:
- AppleCare+ Unlimited Repairs
- Extended Mac AppleCare+ Coverage
- AppleCare’s Limited Duration
- AppleCare+ Indefinite Subscriptions
Update (2025-02-10): Adam Chandler:
I thought AppleCare was only changing for retail customers but it appears Apple Store online only offers monthly or annual now when just last week you could pay for 3 years
Wow. So if you click “monthly or annually” it now pops up a box after you click “checkout” given you a 3rd choice of 3 years.
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In the EU, all goods have a 2-year warranty by law.
Apple sells a 3-year warranty called AppleCare, which I would love to buy, but only if it started AFTER the statutory warranty ended.
It doesn't make sense to buy it immediately, except you are the person who drops everything - because that's not covered...
Another significant difference is that purchased AppleCare can generally be transferred to someone else (say if you give or sell your phone to someone else — not to a different device). AppleCare subscriptions can not.
That doesn't affect me as a customer (sorry, user) though. I just take the phone to the store where I bought it and then they sort it out.
Getting really tired of Apple's reliance on subscription revenue. It's making all their products worse
The subscription and the price hike are indeed tediously predictable, however I should say in fairness that, perhaps by accident, it's now possible to renew a previously up-front AppleCare purchase as a subscription. I just did this, rescuing my cherished iMac 27 2020 for another year. And, yes, yearly options available, so significantly more palatable. It is not clear to me why this was never an option before now.
