Apple One is a subscription which bundles a number of premium services provided by
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...
into tiered packages, first offered in late 2020. The three tiers offered are Individual, Family, and Premier, with all three providing access to
Apple Music
Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...
,
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...
,
Apple Arcade
Apple Arcade is a video game subscription service offered by Apple Inc. It is available through a dedicated tab of the App Store on devices running iOS 13, visionOS, tvOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina or later. The service launched o ...
, and
iCloud
iCloud is the personal cloud service of Apple Inc. Launched on October 12, 2011, iCloud enables users to store and Data synchronization, sync data across devices, including Apple Mail, Calendar (Apple), Apple Calendar, Photos (Apple), Apple Ph ...
storage (50 GB for Individual, 200 GB for Family, and 2TB for Premier). The Premier tier also includes
Apple News+ and
Apple Fitness+. Both family and premier packages allow family sharing for up to six accounts.
Additional iCloud Storage can be purchased on top of an Apple One subscription.
Description
Apple One was announced on September 15, 2020, during the Apple Event and later launched globally on October 30.
Plans for a services bundle had been in development at Apple for years, as part of the company's efforts to increase its revenue from services and decrease its reliance on hardware sales.
The subscription groups premium services provided by
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...
into tiered packages. The three tiers offered are Individual, Family, and Premier, with all three providing access to
Apple Music
Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...
,
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...
,
Apple Arcade
Apple Arcade is a video game subscription service offered by Apple Inc. It is available through a dedicated tab of the App Store on devices running iOS 13, visionOS, tvOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina or later. The service launched o ...
, and
iCloud
iCloud is the personal cloud service of Apple Inc. Launched on October 12, 2011, iCloud enables users to store and Data synchronization, sync data across devices, including Apple Mail, Calendar (Apple), Apple Calendar, Photos (Apple), Apple Ph ...
storage (50 GB for Individual, 200 GB for Family, and 2TB for Premier). The Premier tier also includes
Apple News+ and
Apple Fitness+. Both family and premier packages allow family sharing for up to six accounts.
Additional iCloud storage can be purchased on top of an Apple One subscription.
Apple One subscription bundles are designed to entice users into other services which they might not otherwise have considered subscribing to, such as Apple Arcade or Apple News+, by providing them together at a discounted price.
At launch, the service cost $14.95/month for an Individual Plan, $19.95/month for a Family Plan, and $29.95/month for a Premier Plan. At these prices, a user who would intend to pay for each component service contained in the Individual bundle would save roughly $6 monthly by instead paying for Apple One at the Individual tier, while under the same premise, a Family tier subscriber would save $8 per month and a Premier tier subscriber roughly $25 per month.
Currently, Apple One is priced as $19.95/month for the Individual Plan, $25.95/month for the Family Plan, and $37.95/month for the Premier Plan.
At these prices, assuming the user intended to purchase the services separately, the Individual Plan saves users roughly $9 monthly, a Family Plan saves $11 monthly, and the Premier Plan saves $29 monthly.
Price increases
On October 24, 2022, Apple announced it was to increase pricing of Apple One (along with
Apple Music
Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...
and
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...
) subscriptions in many regions. The Individual plan increased $2 to $16.95/month, the Family plan increased $3 to $22.95/month, and the Premier plan increased $3 to $32.95/month.
At these prices, assuming the user intended to purchase the services separately, the Individual Plan saved users about $7 monthly, the Family Plan saved $8 monthly, and the Premier Plan saved $24 monthly.
On November 3, 2023, Apple accounted it was increasing pricing of Apple One subscriptions. The Individual plan increased $3 to $19.95/month, the Family plan increased $3 to $25.95/month The Premium Plan increased $5 to $37.95/month.
At this current pricing scheme, assuming the user intended to purchase the services separately, the Individual Plan saves users roughly $9 monthly, a Family Plan saves $11 monthly, and the Premier Plan saves $29 monthly.
Reception
The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American Technology journalism, technology news website headquarters, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, cons ...
has compared the service to
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime (styled as prime) is a paid subscription service of Amazon which is available in many countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services inclu ...
, through its bundling of
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...
and
Amazon Music
Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and digital music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers.
It was the first music store to sell music without digital rights manag ...
.
[ CNET noted that the service's biggest draw is its inclusion of iCloud services.]
Competitor Response
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...
has raised concerns that Apple may be exploiting a dominant position, claiming that Apple One puts competitors at a disadvantage as consumers are favoured for using Apple's own services over alternatives, due to Apple's control of the iOS
Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
platform. Spotify called on competition regulators
Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, individ ...
to act because they believe the practice should be seen as anti-competitive behaviour and as such should be subject to restrictions and regulation.
See also
* Pixel Pass
References
{{apple
One
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...
Subscription services