anony_mouse
Well-known member
Apple sells Apple Care Plus to its customers who want it. Why would do that? I highly doubt it’s out of the kindness of its heart. Since Apple is a business, it’s safe to say that it saw a chance for it to make more money by offering Apple Care Plus.
Think about it. Let’s say that one million people spent $129 on Apple Care Plus. That’s equates to 129 million dollars. A majority of the people in this example will more than likely buy a protective case for their device and others will also purchase a screen protector. Even if 10% of those people damaged their device and got it replaced with Apple Care Plus, they still have to fork over $29 for screen repair and $99 for a replacement device.
100,000 people (10% of a million) would pay Apple a total of 2.9 million dollars if they all needed screen repairs. Those same people would pay Apple a total of 9.9 million dollars if they all needed a replacement device. That’s additional money paid to Apple on top of the 129 million that’s already been paid to it.
Here’s the kicker. I will argue that 80% of the aforementioned million people are on an installment plan either with Apple or their wireless carrier. In other words, they don’t even own the phone outright yet.
You said that “Someone has to pay for the people who deliberately drop their phones and get them replaced under Apple Care Plus...”
It looks to me that the debt has long been paid.
Now it's me who doesn't get your point. Think about it this way. If you buy Apple Care Plus, your money goes into a pot. Out of that pot comes the money to cover the people who take Andrew Clark1's advice and drop their phones so they can get a new one. Out of that pot comes the repairs for people who break their phone every year. Out of that pot comes the money to fix the screens of the people who keep their phones in the same pocket as their keys. Out of that pot probably comes some sales commission for the person who sold you the insurance. And at the end of the day, there is probably some money left in the pot for Apple to call profit (especially considering that people who buy this insurance still have to pay some of the costs!).
If, like me, you have never significantly damaged a phone, you will have been paying into the pot, and subsiding all the people above, without getting anything back. I would now have put more than enough money into the pot to buy a new iPhone 10, and I could do so in case I do break my new phone on the day I buy it and still be well ahead of the game. For me and people like me, it's almost certainly better not to buy Apple Care Plus or similar insurance products. Why would I pay for new phones for the people who take Andrew Clark1's advice?
I don't really understand your point. Are you saying that Apple Care Plus should be free, given how much money people are already spending on Apple's products? If you are saying that, I agree that it's an interesting idea and I hope Apple will give it serious consideration.