Apple Prepping All-in Subscription Bundle for October
Apple’s long-expected bundling of all of its consumer subscription services is reportedly called Apple One and could arrive in October.
That’s according to a report from the reliable Mark Gurman in Bloomberg, anyway. Citing multiple sources, he says that the consumer electronics giant will offer different tiers of the service at different price points, and each with its own set of bundled Apple subscription services.
The most basic Apple One package will include just Apple Music and Apple TV+. The next tier up will add Apple Arcade, and then the next tier after that will add Apple News+. The most expensive tier will include all of those services plus extra iCloud storage and should, by my own back-of-the-napkin math match or exceed the average monthly cost of an iPhone. (Bloomberg theorizes that the most expensive package would be about $40 per month.) Each package would work with Apple’s Family Sharing system, meaning that each would provide access to up to six people per service.
Whatever tiers Apple goes with, the plan is obvious enough: Any bundling of services should cost less than paying for the individual services. So that basic tier, which combines Apple Music and Apple TV+, should cost less than $15 per month. My guess is it will land in the $12 to $12.50 range.
Bloomberg also notes that Apple is developing a new virtual fitness class subscription service, codenamed “Seymour.” It will be accessed via an app on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.