If you have an iPhone in your pocket and an Amazon Prime subscription fee stamped on your current account statement, you could find yourself looking twice at the latter in a few hours. That’s because Apple has just taken the wraps off its new Amazon Prime-style membership, which offers access to music streaming, exclusive boxsets to binge, movies on-demand and cloud photo storage, for a flat monthly fee.
Apple has just announced a new subscription bundle called Apple One, which combines a number of its popular subscription services – like Apple Music and Apple Arcade – into a single (discounted) monthly subscription. This is a similar approach to Amazon, which bundles music streaming, unlimited cloud back-up for photos, access to exclusive TV shows and movies, and perks for its Twitch.TV game streaming service all as part of its Prime membership.
Of course, Amazon also offers unlimited next-day delivery (and even two-hour delivery in some locations) with its subscription service too – something that Apple is unlikely to add to its bundle anytime soon. However, with an increased focus on subscriptions, Apple One is an intriguing new approach from the Californian company, which has been steadily adding new subscription services over the last 18-months.
With a single subscription, you’ll be able to enjoy these subscriptions across a range of Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV, and Mac.
“Apple One makes enjoying Apple subscription services easier than ever, including Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, iCloud, and more,” said Eddy Cue, Apple Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services. “With Apple One, you can access the best of Apple entertainment across all your favourite devices with one simple subscription.”
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Apple One is available in the following subscription tiers:
- Individual: this one includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud storage for £14.95 a month
- Family: slightly pricier, but includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 200GB of iCloud storage for £19.95 a month. And most importantly, all of these services can be shared with up to six family members
- Premier: this isn’t available worldwide at launch, but if it’s on offer in your area it includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, and 2TB of iCloud storage for £29.95 a month, which can also be shared among up to six family members. Wowzers.
Apple One includes a 30-day free trial for any services that customers do not already have.
With Apple One, you will get the peace-of-mind of only having to deal with a single invoice each month. You’re also not tied to whatever bundle you’ve picked for an entire year – you’ll be able to switch from Individual to Premier, for example. You can also cancel an Apple One plan at any time, Apple confirms.
With the Family and Premier plans, up to six family members can access all the included services with their own personal accounts and preferences.
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As iPhone and iPad sales slow, the company is increasingly relying on an increase in sales of accessories – like its best-selling AirPods, AirPods Pro and Apple Watch – to existing smartphone customers as well as monthly subscriptions, like Apple Music, Apple TV+, and iCloud storage for back-up.
Amazon has enjoyed huge success with its Prime membership, which costs £79 a year or £7.99 a month.
Prime is targeted at its most loyal customers and gets new benefits over time. As it stands, for that subscription fee, Amazon will throw-in unlimited next-day delivery on thousands of items (and same-day delivery in some areas of the UK), thousands of movies and boxsets courtesy of Prime Video, unlimited photo storage in the cloud so you’ll never lose a holiday snap again – even if your phone sinks to the bottom of the sea, free ebooks on Kindle via Kindle Unlimited, and free delivery on orders over £40 on its supermarket rivalling Amazon Fresh service (a new perk for subscribers).
Last year, Apple kickstarted its Apple TV+ video streaming service by bundling a free year-long trial with the purchase of new Apple hardware. According to sources speaking to Bloomberg, it’s possible there will be a similar tie-in with the forthcoming iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro and Apple One membership later this year.
