Apple’s shift to the world of services
Why Apple is all about services – and which ones are worth your time (and money)
ne of the major strategic shifts undertaken by Apple is offering an increasing range of services alongside the hardware it has long be known for. Apple TV+, launched in November 2019, gets much of the publicity thanks to the presence of global superstars (Oprah, Prince Harry, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon…) and breakout shows (Ted Lasso, Defending Jacob).
However, there is much more to Apple’s service ecosystem, with offerings covering everything from storage to music to fitness. It’s certainly comprehensive, which can all leave you wondering what-is-what, and what is worth spending money on.
OApple TV+
Apple TV+ launched in 2019, with the television and movie streaming service attracting inevitable comparisons with the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. There is, however, an important difference between Apple’s service and its rivals – TV+ (almost) exclusively offers originals.
With cinemas once again welcoming keen movie-goers, some of the films purchased by Apple will appear on the big screen as well as in the home, but series like The Morning Show, Ted Lasso, and For All Mankind, are not available elsewhere. This ‘originals only’ approach initially led to criticism that the library of content was too small. And it was. This has significantly improved over the nearly two years that have followed. There is now a wide range of content for both adults and children, including dramas, comedies and documentaries, with more to come. It’s all at a very competitive price point of £5.99 per month too, cheaper than most rivals, and many new devices come with three free months of Apple TV+.
Apple News+
Apple News+ is perhaps one of the company’s more underrated services. It provides subscribers with digital access to hundreds of high-quality newspapers and magazines – including this one! Most regular magazine readers will be able to find a few publications of interest within the service, and the magazines
are redesigned to look good in a digital format, this is not just about flicking through a PDF. That said, at £9.99 per month, News+ is one of the more expensive Apple services and is certainly not for everyone. Note that although News+ is found within the News app, the two should not be confused. The app itself supplies some content from partners for free as well as acting like a glorified RSS reader by enabling you to follow publications and topics.
Apple Music
If Apple TV+ is the Netflix competitor, Music is the Spotify challenger. It costs £9.99 per month for an individual membership, £14.99 per month for a family membership and £4.99 per month if you’re a student. Apple Music has a library of 75 million tracks, all of which are going to become available in lossless for those audiophiles who notice such things and have the appropriate hardware. Spatial audio, essentially Apple’s version of surround sound, is available on some tracks too, initially via AirPods Pro and Max. However, those are not the things that will make a difference when choosing between Apple Music or Spotify. The curated playlists offered by Apple are really fantastic – promoting new artists, compiling top tracks from certain genres and building up collections of tracks based on your listening history. The ability to listen back to shows on Apple Music One and the other Apple radio stations (free
users can only listen live) is also excellent, with big names like Zane Lowe (formerly of BBC Radio 1), Lady Gaga and Elton John all presenting shows. Unlike Spotify, Apple Music does not integrate podcasts. If you’re interested in such content, head instead to the Podcasts app where you can also see if any of the recently unveiled Podcasts+ paywalled content is of value, the pricing of which is decided on a show-by-show basis.
Apple Fitness+
Apple Fitness+ is a workout service designed around the Apple Watch that offers a wide range of sessions for all body types and abilities. In typical Apple fashion, the content is glossy and impeccably produced whilst integrating different aspects of Apple’s hardware and software ecosystem. This includes Time to Walk – walking workouts designed to be inspirational and narrated by an array of high-profile stars. Users need an Apple Watch and AirPods (or other compatible Bluetooth headphones). The music playlists are also available through the Fitness app and Apple Music.
There is, of course, a host of alternative workout content available across a range of platforms – not least for free on YouTube. Fitness+, with that high-end production and chirpy, recognisable trainers, is though seemingly designed to take on Peloton. The thing that makes Fitness+ standout is the integration with the Apple Watch. You get data like your heart rate live on screen alongside progress about hitting your activity targets, known as ‘closing your rings’. After an initially free three months, Fitness+ costs £9.99 per month or £79.99 for a year.
Apple Arcade
Apple Arcade is a service that offers a range of classic and original games. It has certainly developed since its initial launch in September 2019, when it was just focused on originals. By April 2021, there were 180 games on offer to subscribers including ‘Timeless Classics’ like Backgammon and ‘App Store Greats’ like Fruit Ninja.
As with TV+, Apple has given a competitive price point to Arcade – £4.99 per month after a month’s free trial. That’s the same as Google’s Play Pass, although that has a £29.99 annual offer too. As with all service subscription it works across multiple Apple devices, so you can choose whether to play on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. There is now plenty available, even for casual gamers, but you
probably need to play a variety of games pretty frequently to get real value from it, plus your favourite game might not be included.
iCloud
iCloud is, as the name suggests, a cloud storage tool. Think Dropbox if Apple made it. Boring, right? Maybe, but it’s pretty essential too, acting as the facility through which you access your photos, mail and documents across your devices. There are three different tiers now available – 50GB for £0.99 per month, 200GB for £2.99 per month, or 2TB for £9.99 per month. Apple storage of all types is generally considered expensive, iCloud is broadly on a par with Dropbox (although the latter offers 2TB of storage for £95.88, the equivalent of £7.99 per month, if you pay for a year and has 3TB options too). As our data continues to live increasingly in the cloud expanded iCloud storage is going to become evermore crucial to us Apple users.
Apple One
If many of the services described above sound appealing, but paying for all of them sounds expensive and a bit of a pain to manage, well… you’re right! It is! That’s why, in October 2020, Apple bundled its services into a package called Apple One. There are actually three different versions of Apple One – Individual, Family and Premier. These cost £14.95, £19.95, and £29.95 per month respectively (see ‘What’s in the Apple One bundles’ for what is included with each).
Of course, their value to you depends on the services you actually want or need, but each bundle is cheaper than buying all of the services within it by themselves. The Individual tier costs £21.96 à la carte, the Family one £28.96 and the Premier tier £55.94. It is also really easy to shift your current subscriptions to a bundle – simply go to Settings > [your name] > Subscriptions on your iPhone or iPad and you can pick the bundle that’s best for you. Any current subscriptions are automatically ended and refunds for any outstanding time on them is issued automatically too, meaning you won’t pay twice for anything for any period of time.
More to come
In the grand scheme of things, we are still relatively early in the life of Apple as a services company. It will be a part of the company that continues to expand, both through adding new features to existing services and launching new ones. It is an area that all of us should keep an eye on.
