With memory and storage prices driven up by data centre demand, Apple was reportedly evaluating a device leasing model, a format that can lower monthly payments even while total cost stays high.
The logic repeats what other sectors did facing price increases: when the sale price exceeds what buyers accept paying at once, price becomes an instalment.
For users, it changes the relationship with the device: hardware returns to the manufacturer at term end, giving predictable upgrades, removing the timing decision and tying the user to a contract.
The chain of causation behind it is the relevant fact. AI memory demand made a consumer component expensive enough to suggest changing how a product unrelated to AI is sold.
It's the period's most concrete example of how the infrastructure race reaches people who have never used a language model.