The public reacted with excitement when Apple (News - Alert) began offering the iPhone with a two year contract earlier this year. Previously customers could only purchase an unlocked iPhone at full price, but that announcement allowed for the purchase of a plan with either AT&T, Sprint, Verizon (News - Alert) or T-Mobile.

The latest news from Apple is that soon there will be support for payment plans too, using AT&T’s Next, Verizon’s Edge and T-Mobile’s Jump programs. Sprint (News - Alert) has a similar offering, called One Up, but there is no sign of Apple supporting it yet. Under this system, the cost of the phone is split into 24 payments as opposed to being due all at once up-front. These plans also allow customers to upgrade up to a year early, which is a fairly common habit amongst Apple fans when the latest model is released.

Apple has not marked up the cost of any of these plans, so they are completely comparable to the setup one would find in a carrier’s store. However, critics fear that communication issues between Apple and the carriers may cause a bit of complexity with customers, especially ones that wish to keep their current carrier.

One of the main benefits of shopping for a phone in an Apple store is, according to the company, that nobody understands the iPhone (News - Alert) better than they do. Going off of this, Apple plans to offer comprehensive assistance with the setup process to ensure customers are completely ready before departing. Although this service is already offered at virtually every carrier’s store, it’s still a nice touch.

This service is expected to be available in a few months after results from a few test markets. It’s surely no coincidence that this is right around the time the iPhone 6 is expected to launch.

By offering payment plans, Apple is trying to increase the number of people that purchase their iPhone at an Apple store, which as of now is running around 20 percent of all users. As long as there are no problems between the carriers and Apple, this setup is sure to come in useful for many.