San Francisco, Mar 25 (IANS): Apple is reportedly working on a hardware subscription service that lets you buy not just iPhones but iPads too in monthly payments.

It would be different than the iPhone Upgrade programme that lets you pay for the iPhone in 24 monthly installments.

Under that programme, the device is yours once you have paid for it in full, reports PhoneArena.

The new hardware subscription service is expected to launch by the end of 2022 or in 2023. The programme would differ to a normal mobile phone plan in that it would not be the price of the hardware split across 12, 24 or 36 months.

Instead, it would be a monthly fee based on the hardware that the Apple user chooses.

Apple dominated the list of top 10 best-selling smartphones in 2021 globally, as seven out 10 smartphones in the list were iPhones.

According to market research firm Counterpoint, the top 10 best-selling smartphone models contributed 19 per cent to the total global smartphone unit sales in 2021, compared to 16 per cent in 2020.

Apple secured seven spots in the list, its highest ever, while Xiaomi captured two spots and Samsung one. There were more than 4,200 active smartphone models in the global market in 2021.

The top five models in 2021 were from Apple.

The iPhone 12 was the best-selling model, followed by iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 13, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 11.

The top three models contributed 41 per cent to Apple's total sales.