Code in iOS 13.5.5 Suggests Apple is Working on Services Bundle

[groove-agent]

I always thought a bundle would be a good idea. For example I love how Amazon Prime gives you the free shipping, plus some music and video. If Amazon did a discounted deal for Prime, music AND video would be awesome.

Not so interested in a bundle with Apple TV+. I can count on my left hand how many times I've watched it. For some reason, we usually watch older shows and movies instead.

 

[sublunar]

Just a quick review of each of the Apple services:

iCloud (up to $10 a month)
Needs a Pro 2Tb Tier that works like One Drive (on demand per file per device syncing, and better value generally)

Apple Music ($10 a month, seems to be included with certain phone contracts as far as I can tell)
May be worth the $10 a month if they added some of the services that seem to be appearing - such as ad free indie podcasts.

Apple News + ($10 a month)
Seems to be overpriced service

Apple TV + ($5 a month or free for a year with Apple device purchase at the moment)
No unique content, Apple haven't padded the service with old libraries of content so no real surprise they are giving it away at the moment for people who buy hardware. Even an AppleTV (which can be bought for $149 from Apple) qualifies for a free year of AppleTV+ which is worth $60 a year.

Apple Arcade ($5 a month)
No real comments on the value of this service - not my cup of tea - but could be more interesting if AppleTV becomes a viable gaming platform along with iPod touch. It needs a compelling title, possibly with multiplayer.


So far, it's $40 a month if you buy everything but a lot of people will have rights to AppleTV+ anyway and several won't be too bothered by the Apple Arcade.

Apple could easily try to upsell people to the top tier iCloud where they are currently spending much less per month so there's room for leeway there.

The gambit here for Apple would be to get people spending extra on top tier iCloud which they might not be using for some time, and this would help pay for the Music and News tiers - Apple would pay in full for the artists and publications.

$25-$30 sounds like an Apple type of price but they really need to make improvements to each service to make it more compelling.

That said, Apple are currently giving AppleTV+ away with new Apple devices - it's currently effectively worthless because of the paucity of content. Apple Music tends to be given away as freebies with some UK phone contracts too.

$25 a month (or $250 a year?) sounds about right if Apple were going after a certain number of price sensitive people.

I'm not sure how they'd price up a Family version of this.

 

[macduke]

I would bundle Apple Arcade and Apple Music but I have no need for the rest of that crap.

 

[hans1972]

50 GB should be the free tier. 5 GB these days is laughable. So many people don’t back up at all because their iPhone is their only device, and you can’t backup a 64 GB device in 5 GB.

It is $1 per month.If you can't afford an iPhone + $12 per year, you should not buy an iPhone.
Also that price is pretty competitive.
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This. With devices in the 128-512 gig range, plans of 5, 50, 200, and 2000 gig are beyond silly. You're pretty much forced onto the 2000 gig plan. 5GB for a starter plan was nice 10 years ago. Today with multiple devices 128 gig and up, it's a pathetic joke. With a $1000+ device, they can include more than 5gig of "free" storage.

Almost everyone I know are on the 50Gb plan. An iCloud backup does not just take a raw backup of your device. Only the stuff which cannot be downloaded from elsewhere is being backed up.

 

[KentBunn]

50 GB should be the free tier. 5 GB these days is laughable. So many people don’t back up at all because their iPhone is their only device, and you can’t backup a 64 GB device in 5 GB.

At the very least, it should be 5gb per Active Device on your account. Got an iPad and an iPhone, have 2x as much storage, etc.

If they price a small amount of storage into the price of each device, then give me all the storage I'm paying for!

 

[Babygotfont]

Prices of iCloud storage should fall down to competitive pricing elsewhere. I still find many iOS users don't use beyond the Free 5GB of storage.

5gb per device please (or something along per device lines)

 

[amartinez1660]

Have had 2TB since it was first offered 😒

View attachment 921439

Example case in point. Same use case with Dropbox, get like 2GB or a full TB minimum. (At least with the online smart sync now I’m starting to really use it because else using 100GB on one PC would start emptying the disks everywhere else that was connected).
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How long is this subscription-frenzy going to stick? People will get sick and tired of monthly billing of stuff you only use once in a while. I am already.
Down to Spotify family and a TV bundle, but the TV-stuff is going to go in september, Spotify will probably stay although I listen perhaps one hour per month. It's more or less finger on button every month if I should keep it or not.

It’s cancerously everywhere... even utility applications like Parallels Desktop went that route, going the pay once tier of I think ~$70 it’s only 8GB Ram allowed on the Windows virtual machine (this is a joke by today’s standards), to have the full unblocked experience you have to go the subscription route of around the same price but per year.
The real battle is being done by all those open source and free software endeavors like Blender, DaVinci Resolve free tier, etc.

 

[compwiz1202]

I have ATV+ free for a year, Apple Music comes included with my Verizon plan and I pay annually for Apple Arcade.

I wonder if they’d offer custom bundles.

Or do it like Disney where if you would take a bundle with Music, they would credit you the $9.99 for already having it free from VZW. And I do wish they would include more things like Arcade and iCloud storage.
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Would LOVE to see an annual plan. I hate monthly billing.

And make sure there is a deal. I never understand the places who are like $6/mo or $72/yr. Might be more convenient to have one payment, but if the service goes to crap after 6 mos, I just cancel monthly for a total of $36, or lose $36 on yearly.