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Apple Likely Won't Charge for Apple Intelligence Features Until At Least 2027
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I do remember Apple introducing new products or reinventing old ones every 2 years. Now it’s the same and the same. The only new products Tim Cook has introduced has been the Apple Watch and the Apple Vision Pro. 2 products in more than 10 years.
It's also saying that Apple Intelligence won't be anything worth charging for in the foreseeable future, even in Apple's own assessment. Rather, Apple first has to get on par with what others are currently offering for free, and then it will remain to be seen if they are able to build anything compelling on top of that.
Unlike the Apple approach? Offer free trials, let everyone get used to them, then start charging for them.
I’m talking about the reviews and the marketing here, because I haven’t installed beta software, but I really like what Marques Brownlees says about Apple Intelligence. It’s about integrating it into a workflow through the device automatically rather than doing what ChatGPT and Dall-E or Copilot do. It’s not a search tool, rather than a way to get what you need seamlessly. It’s about integration without giving up your data.
I don’t believe for a second Apple will charge for this. But if they have stuff in the pipeline, and you know they have, it’ll be stuff we haven’t thought of yet. Or implemented in a way no one else has either thought of or been able to.
I want to introduce the 2020 M1 MacBook Air
or Spatial Audio, or AirPods Pro….
whatever…
I just have to say. I’ve been trying to turn the blind eye for many years with Apple, because I respect a lot of what they do, but I just kinda can’t anymore with their pricing structure. It’s become overbearing. Enough is enough.
It will likely be years before Apple Intelligence has a compelling enough feature set that people will pay for, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said in this week's Power On newsletter. Apple Intelligence is still so new that Gurman expects it will "take three years" for Apple to create a product that's worth charging for, and even that "may be the best-case scenario."
Gurman suggested last month that Apple's long-term plan is to develop something like Apple Intelligence+, with add-on features that users would pay a monthly fee to access. Apple already has a tiered subscription setup for iCloud, so Apple Intelligence could work similar to that.
iCloud provides 5GB of free storage to all users, but for a fee, iCloud+ subscription plans include more storage and also access to features like iCloud Private Relay. In the future, basic Apple Intelligence access could continue to be free, with more advanced features requiring a subscription. OpenAI and other companies charge for AI queries and image generation after a set free limit due to the computing power and costs associated with AI.
As of right now, the first Apple Intelligence features are only partially available in the iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 betas. Apple has added Writing Tools, some basic Siri improvements, smart replies in Messages and Mail, and a few other features like a Memory Maker option in Photos, but Image Playground, Genmoji, and the bulk of the Siri upgrades won't be coming until later in 2024 and 2025.
In addition to fully rolling out the first Apple Intelligence features that were announced at WWDC 2024, Apple still needs to work to expand the functionality to more countries, including China and the European Union. The features that Apple showed off in June likely won't all be available until 2025, and there's no word yet on when it might expand to more countries (including other languages), so it's not hard to see how it could take until 2027 or beyond to have a robust product.
As another reference point, Apple introduced Emergency SOS via satellite alongside the iPhone 14 in 2022, a feature that the company plans to eventually charge a fee to use, but it will be at least 2025 before the first iPhone owners have to pay for it. Apple's fee for Emergency SOS has not yet been announced.
When Apple does start charging for Apple Intelligence, it could be baked into existing iCloud+ plans or included as part of Apple One, Apple's subscription bundle. Counterpoint Research analyst Neil Shah recently speculated that Apple could charge between $10 and $20 for Apple Intelligence, with the fee rolled into an Apple One plan. The basic Apple One plan is priced at $19.95 per month right now, and it includes 50GB iCloud+ storage, Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple Arcade.
Article Link: Apple Likely Won't Charge for Apple Intelligence Features Until At Least 2027
And this is coming from someone who owns stock in Apple.
That’s what the subscription will be for, to keep AI disabled on your phone. They probably make more money that way than the other way around. 😊
Features of the phone should always be free, even if the lead to server costs on Apple's side. You already paid a hefty price for the iPhone. Samsung set a very bad example by making AI only free for such a short time.
I’m yet to see a single useful AI feature, on iOS or otherwise. Good luck, Apple.
While I do trust Apple on many points, I had no idea what MacProject was, or its history.
Fascinating read from the original author:
Founder Story: Debra Willrett on Inventing MacProject - SKMurphy, Inc.
I first met Debra Willrett, founder of Expert Software Consulting, at the IEEE Consultants Network for Silicon Valley (CNSV) when she gave a great talk on the new CNSV website in February of 2006. When Francis and I learned that she was the inventor of the Macintosh application MacProject, an...
www.skmurphy.com
That's a real dilemma in our internet world ... people put more value on hardware than they do software, yet the hardware would be nothing without the software. Software has tremendous value and to expect it for "free" is how we've ultimately ended up with subscriptions.
Incidentally: https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2024.2368040
It will be interesting to see how that pans out.
It will be interesting to see how that pans out.
Since when has something being “not worth charging for” stopped a subscription service before, lol!
They won't
Audio and video inference is SIGNIFGANTLY more compute and energy intensive. This cannot be executed on device.
Charging customers will recover costs for:
-Land aquisition for compute warehouses
-Land aquisition for small nuclear powerplant
-Chips for compute
-Associated hardware and staff
-Energy consumption
-Training models
All of the above cannot be offered for free.
Well, one thing that’s for sure is that we won’t have to pay for unlimited image generation, like for other offers. That just wouldn’t makes sense, would it? It’s not like you are using Apple’s servers for that? It’s all on devices. Just like writing tools.
At least that gives them some time to find compelling uses for it. Somewhat-decent-Siri and better search in photos is about the only stuff that looks appealing to me and I certainly wouldn't pay extra for it.
If Apple does charge for this service many will not buy. Amazon is saying they will charge for Alexa AI's advanced features. Either way its No
If the devolution of the Apple app store is anything to go by then it'll work something like this...
You get 25 free gems a day (you lose any unspent free gems at the end of each day).
Each use of Apple Intelligence costs 5 gems.
(unseen by the user the algorithm is designed to only partially answer any question you ask using your free gems to encourage you to spend money)
You can then buy more Apple Intelligence Gems through the app store...
You get 25 free gems a day (you lose any unspent free gems at the end of each day).
Each use of Apple Intelligence costs 5 gems.
(unseen by the user the algorithm is designed to only partially answer any question you ask using your free gems to encourage you to spend money)
You can then buy more Apple Intelligence Gems through the app store...
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Is Apple known for using bate-and-switch tactics? Because I don't recall many instances of such
care to explain? There's plenty of machine learning all over your iPhone already
Subscription creep is out of control! Companies are raking it in, but our wallets are feeling the pain. Anyone else doing a subscription detox? I've slashed mine to the bone. Let's fight back together!
I had some insider info on some AI stuff from a major cloud comms company recently. They chucked out a "preview" of their AI proposition which was a reasonable use case and competently implemented. Users dived on it in the free trial stage of the rollout and used it. However, the moment they started to actually ask for money for it they had less than a 0.2% conversion rate from free to paid users. They are considering dumping it now because the net financial position is a loss.
I suspect the same thing will happen here. It's worth something if it's free. The moment they charge for it, it will not be worth anything because it's not really worth paying for. And you will need to pay for it because the compute to build and execute the models is extremely expensive.
And that's how the AI industry dies. It's expensive to implement and run and the end users are not likely to pay for it because it's not that life changing.
I suspect the same thing will happen here. It's worth something if it's free. The moment they charge for it, it will not be worth anything because it's not really worth paying for. And you will need to pay for it because the compute to build and execute the models is extremely expensive.
And that's how the AI industry dies. It's expensive to implement and run and the end users are not likely to pay for it because it's not that life changing.
That's obviously very different from the more LLM-based generative AI stuff that makes up the vast majority of Apple Intelligence. Image generation and email rewriting, are nothing new and nothing valuable, while improved Siri is something that should be included as a feature of the phone. Paying for Apple Intelligence feels very much like paying a subscription to use the heated seats in your car.