Over the past year or so phone leasing programs have gained quite a bit of traction with consumers in the United States. All four major carriers now also offer phones on installment plans aside from conventional service contracts while carriers such as T-Mobile have done away with two year contracts altogether. Apple hopped onboard the bandwagon as well when earlier this month it announced the iPhone Upgrade program, the program encourages consumers to purchase iPhones directly from company stores provided they sign a two year financing agreement which starts at $32 per month and allows them to purchase a new iPhone every year with AppleCare. Samsung is reportedly going to take a page out of its rival's playbook and start leasing Galaxy smartphones soon, at least in the US.
Forbes reports that Samsung could launch its smartphone leasing program over the next few months though it's expected that the timeline may accelerate. It's unclear at this point in time what Samsung's pricing scheme for this program is going to be, unlike Apple it doesn't have just two smartphones, but presumably the leasing program might be limited to the company's flagship handsets. Samsung has not commented on this report so there's no outright denial, for all we know the company could seriously be looking into leasing Galaxy smartphones to consumers in the United States. Whether or not it decides to bring this program to other markets remains to be seen.
