Apple should consider leasing its iPhone to make it more affordable and to help the tech giant maintain its market share and margins, Max Wolff, chief economist at Manhattan Venture Partners, said Thursday.
His comments followed a note from Macquarie Research on Wednesday which suggested Apple lease its Phone in order to expand sales.
"If they want to grow or maintain the market share and the margin they have right now, they need to figure out how to sell more than 50 million units a quarter," Wolff said in an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell. "
"If they want to sell more than 50 million units a quarter and keep up these margins they are going to have to do something to take advantage of the fact that growth is with low-income people."
Leasing smartphones has become a trend with mobile carriers, and Brian Blair, co-founder and principal of Grays Peak Capital, thinks that's where the practice should stay.
"Apple doesn't need to get into this business," he told "Closing Bell."
That's because the company wants to increase the number of phones it sells every quarter around the world, not just in the U.S., he said.
"The way to do that is to work with all the carriers around the globe ... to make it as inexpensive as possible to put iPhones in people's hands and let people get new ones," Blair contended.
Plus, one of the reasons Apple keeps older models on the production line is to have phones available for those who can't afford the latest model, he pointed out.
—CNBC's Silvana Henao contributed to this report.
Disclosure: Wolff does not own AAPL, but his family does. Manhattan Venture Partners doesn't do business with AAPL but seeks to. Blair, his family and firm do not own AAPL.
