Makes sense to subscribe to Apple One, if one is subscribing to multiple Apple services. But it would have been good if Apple allows customers to make their own bundle. I could trade Apple Arcade for higher iCloud storage.
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Apple Shares Ad Promoting Apple One Subscription Service
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It will just be factored into the price of the iPhone, meaning that people who either don't use or can't access those services end up overpaying.
Cleaner to simply break them out, and let consumers decide what they want and pay for each separately.
this is actually a valuable deal for internet service. Apple Music got biggest library and iCloud is more required than before. The rest are bonus
I suppose it's easy to underestimate the cost, effort and complexity of putting in the backend ordering and billing systems for an operation that has as many customers as Apple has but I do wish that there was some option to create your own bundle because none of the bundles work for me, they either have stuff I don't want or are missing stuff that I do want, and if too many people are like me then Apple is leaving money on the table.
I use Google services (mail, calendar, photos, Drive) on my iPhone and iPad so that is where my cloud storage is, I have a subscription to Qobuz for high res music streaming, I'm not a gamer so have no interest in Arcade, and due to some health issues my exercise regimen is quite cautious and controlled hence Fitness+ is not of interest to me and if there is something I want to watch on Apple TV I sign up for a month every now and then to binge watch. That all means that right now I don't subscribe to any Apple services at all. Having said that however, if I could create my own bundle of the services that I'm sort of interested in that gave me a decent discount on that bundle - for me the bundle would be Apple Music (for my smart speakers that don't have Qobuz integration), Apple News+ (so I can read all those News+ only articles I keep encountering) and Apple TV (to avoid the hassle of subscribing and then cancelling when I want to watch something) - then I would definitely jump on board whereas for now paying full price for all of those doesn't make sense for me given I'm only half-interested in any of them.
I use Google services (mail, calendar, photos, Drive) on my iPhone and iPad so that is where my cloud storage is, I have a subscription to Qobuz for high res music streaming, I'm not a gamer so have no interest in Arcade, and due to some health issues my exercise regimen is quite cautious and controlled hence Fitness+ is not of interest to me and if there is something I want to watch on Apple TV I sign up for a month every now and then to binge watch. That all means that right now I don't subscribe to any Apple services at all. Having said that however, if I could create my own bundle of the services that I'm sort of interested in that gave me a decent discount on that bundle - for me the bundle would be Apple Music (for my smart speakers that don't have Qobuz integration), Apple News+ (so I can read all those News+ only articles I keep encountering) and Apple TV (to avoid the hassle of subscribing and then cancelling when I want to watch something) - then I would definitely jump on board whereas for now paying full price for all of those doesn't make sense for me given I'm only half-interested in any of them.
Feels like the way they've organised and priced this isn't actually geared toward saving you money, it's designed to get you signing up for additional services.
As an example I should be a prime target for this sort of thing, I would love to save a little money and amalgamate our subscriptions into one monthly payment.
We currently have
Music family £14.99
TV+ £4.99
2TB storage £6.99
Total £26.67
Family plan is £19.95 which would be a great saving, but frustratingly it only includes 200gb and we need 2TB. (Side note, how many families actually stay under the 200gb?? I'm easily the heaviest user in our house due to all the documents on my MBP, but my wife and kid have nearly 500gb combined just from their iPhones.)
So our only option is the Premier plan at £29.95 which has the 2TB storage, but we don't want News or Workouts, but then again it would mean we could get Arcade for £3.32 a month instead of £4.99, so we'd save £1.67 on that...
But hang on a minute I wanted to save a little money and now I'm contemplating spending a little more for a thing that I didn't originally want?!
So yeah we're staying put 😁
I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the office where Apple work out their pricing structures, they've got some proper evil geniuses working in there.
As an example I should be a prime target for this sort of thing, I would love to save a little money and amalgamate our subscriptions into one monthly payment.
We currently have
Music family £14.99
TV+ £4.99
2TB storage £6.99
Total £26.67
Family plan is £19.95 which would be a great saving, but frustratingly it only includes 200gb and we need 2TB. (Side note, how many families actually stay under the 200gb?? I'm easily the heaviest user in our house due to all the documents on my MBP, but my wife and kid have nearly 500gb combined just from their iPhones.)
So our only option is the Premier plan at £29.95 which has the 2TB storage, but we don't want News or Workouts, but then again it would mean we could get Arcade for £3.32 a month instead of £4.99, so we'd save £1.67 on that...
But hang on a minute I wanted to save a little money and now I'm contemplating spending a little more for a thing that I didn't originally want?!
So yeah we're staying put 😁
I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the office where Apple work out their pricing structures, they've got some proper evil geniuses working in there.
So what you’re saying is you have what you want, for cheaper than the premium plan without the things you don’t want, yet you want to get it cheaper because you have multiple services.
Apple One just doesn’t make financial sense if you need 2TB of storage and are only interested in one or two services. I pay $9.99/month for storage and prepay for a full year of Apple Music at $8.25/month ($99/year). That brings my total monthly billings to $18.24. Why would I pay $11.71 extra per month for all the other services that don’t interest me. I can get Apple TV+ once or twice a year for a month at a time if there’s something interesting on. That still saves me over $10/month vs. Apple One.
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No, what I’m saying is it’s marketed as a means to save a little money with the convenience of a single monthly payment.
But that’s not what it’s really about, it’s designed to encourage you to sign up for additional services that you mightn’t do otherwise. Case in point being the family plan, which offers insufficient data thus nudging you toward premier which is packaged with the less popular services.
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I think it’s designed to provide services you might want, and get it for a competitive price. I use all of these services, but if they weren’t available, with the price of Spotify, Peleton, Google storage, Newspaper subs etc, it makes it an easy choice. I also get access to heaps of Magazines I have enjoyed in the past and access to more I never even knew about. It’s all about use, and having the Apple Watch & a couple of Apple TV's makes it an easy buy for me.
I'm not sure that News+ is less popular. I paid for it before the premium plan was available, but people are different.
I do agree with you that the 2TB upgrade is probably the biggest pull on the premium package for a reason, and it’s probably marketing. But for me, it just adds to the value I already have. I can imagine there are people in Apple who wanted to keep it separate to get the extra revenue, but instead they use it as an incentive. I’m good with that. Although I currently use <60GB out of 2TB and have Homekit Secure Video data streams for 3 Eufy cameras stored for free in that package. Another win.
I do have a question though. I can upgrade my iCloud to 4TB with an extra AU$14.99. What would it cost for you to do the upgrade to 2TB?
I think it's funny in 2022 people still act like the iPhone is just a "phone" and not a full-fledged computer with an advanced mobile OS in your pocket, not to mention records/edits 4K video, takes professional quality photos, holds your music library for on the go, can run millions of apps, etc. Not to mention the great build quality and all the engineering that goes into fitting such a powerful device into such a small package. You're getting what you pay for. Would it be nice if Apple gave you free stuff? Sure. Free stuff is always nice. But "should"? Nah. If you don't think you're getting your money's worth, then either you're buying more phone than you need or you're just not realizing what you've got because you take it for granted.
my family and i use apple one , we pay 30+10 to make its 4tb cloud storage and use free secure video recording storage not really free since you pay for it technically and also we use Apple Music Apple TV the only things we don’t use is Apple Arcade and Apple news what ever you call it
I wish it were worth it, but Spotify swooped in with that $12 two-person plan and we’ve been happy with the service. Plus it’s a few bucks cheaper each month. Until News is offered in a lower tier I’ll just rely on free trials
I get AM for free from VZW and pay for Spotify Premium. Free is all about AM is worth, as broken by design as it is. You can't even make playlists unless you give Apple access to destroy your local library.
There are several uses I give my iCloud storage. Just because you don't use it doesn't mean others don't as well.
SurferPup sees no evil ads, hears no evil ads. I love 😍 Apple 🎵 - just music and Huey Lewis telling about interesting experiences throughout his life. Really would love to chat to him in the Culver City studio as he is one of my favourite artists.
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You can't back up iCloud. You can back up Dropbox, you can back up Google Drive, you can even back up OneDrive.
But not iCloud.
But you can get everything a la carte...
iCloud+ - yes (IIRC, starting at $5 a month)
AA - $5 a month, $50 per year, or $45 per year with Costco membership
ATV+ - same as AA above
AMusic - $10 a month
News+ - $10 a month, or $90 per year via Costco
Fitness+ - $10 a month, or $80 per year
Ok… I mean, to each there own, but I fail to see how not being able to back up iCloud is a hinderance.