Preapproval to preorder iPhone outside the Apple Ecosystem

[c84216]

Question for all:

I've been out of the Apple ecosystem for 4 years. I left for the Google Pixel and never looked back. Now the Pixel 5 is barely more than a warmed over midrange phone overpriced by $200 and I have serious concerns about datamining from the other Android flagship manufacturers (Samsung), I'm ready to go back to an iPhone this year. As I want to preorder a 12 Pro Max, I would want to do preapproval (ideally through iPhone Upgrade Program, would be fine with Apple Card Payments). The problem is, from what I can see, you have to do all preapprovals through the Apple Store App. I shed all my iDevices when I moved to Android 4 years ago and therefore have no way to access the Apple Store app. Is it possible to preapprove for one of Apple's payment programs without an iDevice and, if so, how? Thanks for your advice.

 

[Weaselboy]

iPhone

Designed for Apple Intelligence. Discover the new iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16, and iPhone 16 Plus.

www.apple.com

Nah... you can do it all in a web browser from Apple's web site. I did not do that this year, but I have done it before.

 

[jetsam]

Question for all:

I've been out of the Apple ecosystem for 4 years. I left for the Google Pixel and never looked back. Now the Pixel 5 is barely more than a warmed over midrange phone overpriced by $200 and I have serious concerns about datamining from the other Android flagship manufacturers (Samsung), I'm ready to go back to an iPhone this year. As I want to preorder a 12 Pro Max, I would want to do preapproval (ideally through iPhone Upgrade Program, would be fine with Apple Card Payments). The problem is, from what I can see, you have to do all preapprovals through the Apple Store App. I shed all my iDevices when I moved to Android 4 years ago and therefore have no way to access the Apple Store app. Is it possible to preapprove for one of Apple's payment programs without an iDevice and, if so, how? Thanks for your advice.

For iPhone 12/12 Pro pre-approval, Apple required you to use the Apple Store App, specifically from an iPhone. It was not possible to do it from the Apple web site. I don't know if they will change this for the 12 Pro Max.

Pre-order iPhone

iPhone 12 pre-order starts soon. But you can get the prep work out of the way today with the Apple Store app on your iPhone. Learn more.

www.apple.com

 

[Weaselboy]

For iPhone 12/12 Pro pre-approval, Apple required you to use the Apple Store App, specifically from an iPhone. It was not possible to do it from the Apple web site. I don't know if they will change this for the 12 Pro Max.

Pre-order iPhone

iPhone 12 pre-order starts soon. But you can get the prep work out of the way today with the Apple Store app on your iPhone. Learn more.

www.apple.com

Interesting... I have done it before on the website.

I wonder if this just applies to pre-order and once we get past the twenty-third if one can do a regular order from the web-site?

 

[jetsam]

Interesting... I have done it before on the website.

I wonder if this just applies to pre-order and once we get past the twenty-third if one can do a regular order from the web-site?

Yes, this was (AFAIK) the first year they've done this.

The pre-qualification was available before 10/16 (I think it started right after the keynote). The idea was that on 10/16 at 5AM PDT pre-qualified pre-orders only needed the user to hit "Go" and they were in the queue. At 5 AM PDT on 10/16, pre-orders opened to everyone, including on the web site. Those without a pre-qualifed pre-order would have to go through the entire selection process (phone, memory, color, carrier, etc.) before they could get their order into the queue.

And how do I know so much about this? I hemmed and hawed about getting a 12 - my 7 Plus is a little long in the tooth, but it's still working great, has 90% battery, and has touch-id. So, I didn't bother to pre-qualify. On 10/16, at 4:45 AM I changed my mind, and decided to get a 12 Pro. I was in the app at 4:45, and pre-orders finally went live at 5:03 AM.

Because I hadn't pre-qualified, I had to go through the 20 questions. Lastly, I had to make the purchase through my Apple Card to get the 3% and the 24 month financing. Unfortunately, it took nearly 15 minutes to get my order accepted. By 8:20, when my order finally went through, my delivery date had slipped from 10/23 to 10/30 - 11/4.

People who had done the pre-qualification process said their orders sailed through instantly.

 

[Weaselboy]

People who had done the pre-qualification process said their orders sailed through instantly.

Yeah... I did the preorder in the app and it took me just a couple quick taps on Friday morning to place my 12 Pro order.