Apple Readies Subscription Bundles To Boost Digital Services (bloomberg.com) 27
Apple is readying a series of bundles that will let customers subscribe to several of the company's digital services at a lower monthly price, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the effort. From the report: The bundles, dubbed "Apple One" inside the Cupertino, California-based technology giant, are planned to launch as early as October alongside the next iPhone line, the people said. The bundles are designed to encourage customers to subscribe to more Apple services, which will generate more recurring revenue. There will be different tiers, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private plans. A basic package will include Apple Music and Apple TV+, while a more expensive variation will have those two services and the Apple Arcade gaming service. The next tier will add Apple News+, followed by a pricier bundle with extra iCloud storage for files and photos. Apple's plans, and the structure of the bundles, may change. But the goal is to offer groups of services at lower prices than would be charged if consumers subscribed to each offering individually.
Most expensive tier of all (Score:1)
The topmost tier would be - everything Apple offers, minus Apple News.
Fuzzy logic of bundles (Score:2)
There's a lot of logic to paying more buying in bulk. And there's a lot of logic to paying more when you buy a sampler fruit backet since someone had to assemble it for your convenience. But on digital materials it seems like some of this logic goes away.
Bundlers might argue that by getting more HBO subscribers they can negotiate for lower bulk cost from HBO. But this argument has a flip side.
If youre subscriber base is big enough, and you offer everything ala-carte, and few people actually pay for HBO,
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The logic here is that people who buy Apple products have no fucking sense.
forced Bundles need to go the grocery store does n (Score:2)
forced Bundles need to go the grocery store does not have them but cable does.
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Look at all the subscriptions Apple offers.
iCloud extra storage
Apple Music
AppleTV+
Apple News+
Apple Arcade
Each one is separate and distinct. Chances are, a good number of users have two or more of them, and it's likely a big irritant to pay full price for two services from the same provider.
So bundling does make sense - AppleTV+ and Apple Music may be bought together, so why not have a combined service that lets people pay a little less for both? You can make up the difference by having those with one be att
Ugh... (Score:1)
Apple needs higher end iCloud storage (Score:2)
Currently the iCloud plans top out at 2TB. If you take a lot of photos and videos, and want a family subscription, it's not hard to see bumping into that limit - especially if you move documents into iCloud as Apple really wants you to do on a Mac.
The upper limit has been 2TB for quite some time, so I hope they bump that up to soem higher level, for the same price... or open up much larger storage tiers even if it costs a bit more.
Re: Apple needs higher end iCloud storage (Score:1)
Sounds good to me! (Score:1)
Apple should be more supporting tools that allow people to easily plug in, say a WD Easystore 8Tb external HDD, and then that is on connected to a Mac or iPad at home and that becomes my personal all-in-one cloud alongside apples ÃoecloudÃ.
That would be awesome! Sadly I doubt we'll see anything like that, but anything Apple could do to act as a dirt simple offsite backup of anything would be welcome. I am still not sure which cloud backup system to go with, I keep drives offsite manually current
Tightly tied to iDevices (Score:2)
I am not saying Apples services are bad, I just don't use them, because they are so tightly tied to Apples devices. I have Apple Devices, but I don't have the whole Apple Echosystem. So I am better off going with services that are not tied to hardware. So I can watch on my Apple TV, or My Windows PC, or my Android Phone. or even my Linux Workstation. If it is a case in a few years, I get rid of my Apple TV, or my Wife decides not to have an iPhone. Then our Apple ecosystem would be gone, with subscrip
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You're right. In fairness, they did add apps to some tv brands to stream on smart tvs. My samsung got the update awhile back. It sucks compared to an apple TV. They also let you stream apple music on the amazon echo now. You can also use apple music on android.
I wish you could stream video from the web. As far as I know, they don't have a service for that yet. There is a beta site for music though.
I get more frustrated by the services limiting streaming to certain browsers or operating systems. If I'm
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True, Apple services will run on other platforms, and my post was exaggerating a bit. As I was surprised that my Samsung phone was able to control my Apple TV with the stock Apps, and it worked better than the iPhone version, because I had a Samsung TV, so I could adjust the volume on my phone, where I couldn't on the iPhone.
But Apple services often just throw scraps to other hardware and OS vendors Because Apple is trying to burn the candle at both end, Sell hardware, and sell Subscription Services. While
Is there anything on Apple TV+? (Score:2)
Is there anything on Apple TV+? I have it (free with new IPhone) but never watch it
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Replying AC because I've modded posts already.
For All Mankind is actually very well made if you're into geeky and alternate history subjects. Mythic Quest is absolutely hilarious and incredibly clever. My wife loved The Morning Show, I was lukewarm on it. There are a couple of good movies: Dads, Greyhound and The Banker. For us, the best part of the deal is the kids content our child loves. We are also eagerly awaiting Foundation to be released this Fall.
Don't bother with Amazing Stories. It's mind numbingl
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Yeah, AM wasn't good like the rad 80s version. It's like that Twilight Zone series vs. the original series. :(
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http://tv.apple.com/us/show/fo... [apple.com] was pretty decent. http://tv.apple.com/us/show/fr... [apple.com] if you loved the original series.
Sign of failure (Score:3)
Jobs and Wozniak did not need subscriptions and bundles to make a killing - they had revolutionary physical PRODUCTS for sale.
When companies go to subscriptions instead of one-time-cost "perpetual licenses" for software, and to bundles instead of a la carte for programming, they are trying to do two things: [1] stabilize revenue (by going from spikes with new releases and valleys between) and [2] increase what they take from the customer base (who must buy what they will never use).
It was a bad sign when Tim Cook made his announcement that Apple would be moving into the Netflix/Hulu/AmazonPrime space - transitioning Apple from a maker of things to a movie theater chain without the theaters. Question all shareholders should ask: What new revolutionary thing has Apple rolled out in the Tim Cook era? (Same applies to many other tech execs these days, but this story is about Apple).
Companies run by their founders (or the kids of the founders who have a family interest) tend to be better run and probably should be taxed and regulated less than companies that have disinterested boards and hired gun CEOs whose primary concern is high pay while they can get it from short-sighted policies followed by massive golden parachutes, while having had little to do with the initial success of the firm.
Two Apple stories from Bloomberg in a row (Score:2)
Are Slashdot, Apple, and Bloomberg all in bed together? I'm a kinky guy, but that's not exactly my turnon.
Full Circle (Score:2)
Lets quit Cable because they insist on bundling crap that do not go together (such as Sports and Cooking shows).
Fantastic! Now I can pay for just the shows I want!
Ooh, I want this and that. Hey, wait a second, different brands are all trying to compete for the same market. I have to buy ALL of these services to get all the single genre that I like called SciFi/Fantasy/Romance/Horror/Drama/Comedy????
How can I afford this? It is more expensive then the Cable was. Wait a second, they are buying each othe
Isn't this what you all 'cut cords' over? (Score:2)
Seems like you're all being dragged back to more or less where you started from.
Services, Services, Services (Score:1)
Apple will increase their Services revenue even if it kills them (by pissing off their customer base).
How much? (Score:2)
Honestly, I don't really care because there's just no way I'm interested in another streaming anything, especially from Apple.