No way if people have to lease or pay between $700 and $950 for the newest phone are they going to do that yearly anymore unless they get paid a lot.
There is no way Apple can get the same sales they used to have without subsidies IMO.
That will leave a mark on their profits.
You think that none of the other makers' phones aren't being subsidized? Frankly you are wrong. None of them are being "subsidized." What you characterize as a "subsidy" is merely a time payment plan over two years. . . and always has been. It's just been hidden in the monthly plan payment with a small to large downpayment depending on the up-front cost of the phone being bought on time. The more expensive the phone, the larger the initial cost to initiate the two-year plan. What do you think was going on?
In fact, CA Guy, it was in the interests of the carriers to sell the customer a LOW COST cell phone on a monthly plan or even give one away with ZERO down, because it would be paid off quickly, and the monthly charges NEVER went down, so the profits were far larger for them than if the customer bought a premium phone such as an iPhone at $199 or the even more expensive Samsung Galaxy flagship which went for $249. Those took far longer to pay off the residuals. If the customer got a cheapy zero down phone, all the left over excess payments were profit gravy for the carriers.
Apple is well prepared for this, already selling their iPhones and iPads with time payment programs in their on-line store and brick-and-mortar stores as well as at all major carriers on programs such as AT&T's NEXT and the other carriers have similar plans. When the next model comes out, you can just trade in your current phone and reset the payments and get the latest and greatest, much sooner than you could before under the old two-year contract system. This is actually better for Apple's bottom line as users do not have to wait for contracts to expire to upgrade. I've been using that plan for my iPhones and iPads for the last two years. Works great and I always have the latest up-to-date models.
It is one of the reasons that Apple had a stellar 2015.