Owing money you don't have has disadvantages even without interest.

For example, if you make 5000 dollars a month and get a 5000 dollar BNPL loan for a stereo, payment due in a month, then even without interest, you now either starve or default on the loan (or incur penalties, i.e. the interest you thought didn't apply).

You realize almost every phone in the US that you buy through the major carriers has worked like this for decades?

Why would you buy your phone through a carrier? Is it the good old US lack of regulation so it's the only option carriers let you have? I get my phone and my SIM card separately.

Why not? It’s an iPhone the same as any other iPhone with no carrier bloatware. It usually comes at a discount with monthly credits.

Even if I do buy directly from Apple using the Apple credit card, it’s still 2 years with no interest and the same BNPL in all but name.

And now it’s all eSIM anyway. If I go to another country I just activate the second eSIM.

And it was never about the phone makers not letting you have the phone. Some low end phones even today don’t support all of the carriers frequencies and back in the day you had phones that had to support CDMA vs GSM and even then different parts of spectrum were used by different carriers.

Mobile phones at first “free” with a two year service plan and later as a second line item has been the most popular way to buy phones in the US since I was selling them at Radio Shack in the mid 90s.

I would get a commission based on a $300-$400 phone and the customer paid $1 up front.