In October the Core Group announced it was following the lead of Apple in the US by allowing consumers to take out a package at South African iStores that’ll enable them to upgrade their phones every year. In order to be eligible for the deal you’ll need a iStore Card, which is issued by Standard Bank. Thankfully, you won’t actually have to bank with Standard Bank, though, so rest easy.
Interested iPhone fanatics can apply for an iStore card here. They’ll need to be at least 18 years old, receive a monthly salary of at least R4,000 and be a South African citizen. Once they’ve got the card, consumers can pop into any iStore, take out a 24-month payment plan for a new iPhone, get a contract or prepaid SIM on any mobile network (or bring their own) and, a year later, they an trade in their old iPhone for the new one.
The monthly fee naturally varies depending on the handset. Below is a table detailing what you can expect to pay:
[UPDATE: The Core Group has released three accompanying advertisements to promote this initiative. The most endearing of the three follows below.]
