Apple considered a "white-glove" element for its Apple Upgrade leasing program that would have delivered each new replacement device already loaded with the customer's data, but the idea never made it out of planning, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Apple Upgrade launched in the U.S. on July 28, replacing the iPhone Upgrade Program and iPhone Payments. The plan lets customers lease an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch rather than buy one outright or pay in installments. iPhone and Apple Watch leases run 12 or 24 months, while Mac and iPad terms are 24 or 36 months.

Setting up a new iPhone can be a notoriously drawn-out process, and the feature would have removed that step from launch day entirely. Gurman believes however that the privacy optics may have put Apple off the idea. Apple may have decided the idea of receiving a new iPhone with personal account data pre-installed on it could be unnerving for some customers, provoking questions about how the data was transferred.