Apple and Google advance device financing and AI model rollout

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Apple & Google financing, AI rollout

Highlights

Apple partners with Klarna to launch Apple Upgrade, a device leasing program debuting July 28 in the U.S. for iPhone, Mac, iPad, and Apple Watch models.
Apple Upgrade targets customers delaying purchases due to recent device price hikes, aiming to accelerate upgrade cycles and expand Apple Intelligence adoption.
Google unveils three specialized Gemini models—3.5 Flash-Lite, 3.5 Flash Cyber, and 3.6 Flash—to address delayed Gemini 3.5 Pro release and rising enterprise demand for token-efficient AI tools.

Device leasing plan targets upgrade demand

As first reported by CNBC Investing, Apple shares edge higher after Bloomberg News reports that the company is partnering with Klarna on a new device leasing program called Apple Upgrade.

The service is expected to launch on July 28 and support most iPhone, Mac, iPad and Apple Watch models. Instead of requiring customers to buy devices outright, the subscription-style offer lets users upgrade early to a newer model or keep the device at the end of the leasing term.

Apple Upgrade is initially available in the U.S. through both online channels and the company’s physical stores. The program comes as Apple raises prices across several devices because of higher memory costs, and lower monthly payments could soften the impact for consumers weighing a purchase.

The financing structure may also help bring back customers who have kept their iPhones for four or five years, or longer. That matters for Apple because newer devices support Apple Intelligence and broader app capabilities, strengthening monetization potential and deepening customer retention within its hardware ecosystem.

Google expands Gemini portfolio for efficiency push

Alphabet’s Google announces three new specialized Gemini models, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber and Gemini 3.6 Flash, as the company responds to investor concerns about the pace of its AI releases.

The update follows disappointment that Gemini 3.5 Pro is running behind schedule after originally being due in June. Google says Gemini 3.5 Pro is testing with partners and will become broadly available once it is ready, while the company is already working on Gemini 4 and has begun what it calls its most ambitious pre-training run yet.

The new releases align with a broader shift in corporate AI spending as customers focus more on token efficiency after large compute bills. Specialized models for tasks such as cybersecurity or other high-value functions can help companies control costs while maintaining performance, a direction that is increasingly shaping development strategies across the technology sector.

That change suggests AI providers are moving away from relying on a single model for every task and toward a toolkit approach built around targeted workloads. For Google, the rollout supports its AI strategy by addressing practical enterprise demand and may feature in investor discussions around Alphabet’s earnings call.

In our earlier article on SoundHound AI (SOUN), we covered the stock’s rebound on renewed buying interest alongside a more favorable analyst consensus versus peers such as Telos. The piece noted that despite the upbeat comparisons around SoundHound’s product suite, SOUN was still trading below key moving averages, with resistance near $6.53 and technical signals pointing to elevated downside risk in the near term.

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