Apple One
Are the Apple One bundles really worth it, or are there cheaper alternatives?
We know that Apple doesn’t usually invent things; it waits, watches and refines them instead. The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone. The iPad wasn’t the first tablet. And Apple One wasn’t the first Amazon Prime.
We’re not being funny. Apple One has a lot in common with Prime because, as Amazon has demonstrated to the tune of 150 million subscribers, it’s much easier to sell a single subscription bundle than persuade customers to sign up for this and that and this other thing. In the case of Prime, that single subscription gives customers free delivery, Prime Video, Kindle book lending, Amazon Photos, Amazon Music, and various other bits and bobs. In the case of Apple One, it gives you some or all of Apple’s digital services.
WHAT’S IN APPLE ONE?
Apple One is a bundle of Apple’s subscription services for gaming, TV, music, news, fitness, and online storage. There are three versions: Individual, Family, and Premier. Individual and Family both offer Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and iCloud, with 50GB of storage for the Individual tier and 200GB for the Family one. The Individual tier is $14.95 a month and Family is $19.95 a month.
The third tier, Premier, is the all–you– can–eat offering. It gives you the same services as the other two tiers, ups the iCloud storage to 2TB, and adds Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+. It’s $29.95 per month and, like Family, you can share with up to five other people.
With Family and Premier, each user logs in with their own Apple ID and gets private access to each service. For example, the kids won’t see your Fitness+ programs or your Apple TV+ viewing history and recommendations, and they won’t be able to mess with your Apple Music playlists.
HOW DO I GET APPLE ONE?
Go to apple.com/apple-one to find out more or subscribe. There’s a free trial but only for the services you don’t already subscribe to. So, for example, if you have Apple Music but not News+ or Apple TV+, you’ll get a 30–day trial of the latter two but not the former.
HOW MUCH CAN YOU SAVE?
With Apple One you can bundle up to six Apple Services into one subscription — the biggest saving is when you go for the full bundle. Let’s do the sums. The top tier of Apple One, the Premier bundle, is
APPLE ONE IS A SUBSCRIPTION BUNDLE FOR GAMING, TV, MUSIC, NEWS, FITNESS, AND ONLINE STORAGE
$29.95 a month. That gives you Apple Music with a Family subscription, usually $14.99 a month; Apple TV+, which is $4.99 a month; Apple Arcade, which is also $4.99; 2TB of iCloud, which is $9.99; Apple News+, which is $9.99, and Apple Fitness+, which is $9.99. Separately, that little lot would cost you $54.94 a month, so you’re saving $25 with Apple One.
The Family tier is $19.95 a month and drops News+ and Fitness+ as well as taking iCloud down to 200GB of storage. The monthly saving is $8.
And for individual users, the Individual tier is $14.95 and will save you $6 a month. Like Family it dispenses with Apple News+ and Fitness+ and it drops the iCloud storage even lower to just 50GB.
IS IT WORTH THE MONEY?
We’d quibble with a few things here. 50GB of iCloud storage is poor when even the most modest iPhone has 64GB capacity: a few backups and some 4K video are going to burn through that space very quickly, never mind iCloud Drive. The same applies to the Family tier: 200GB isn’t much for snap–happy families. Many Individual users are going to need more iCloud storage fairly quickly, and we’re disappointed by the standard amounts. Yes, you can upgrade your iCloud, but that defeats the point of a bundle.
It also seems strange for Apple News+ and Fitness+ to be restricted to the Premier tier, which is effectively Family on steroids. Many Individual users would be interested in those services without necessarily wanting a family subscription to Apple Music.
The biggest consideration, of course, is whether you’ll actually use all the services in your bundle. Take our own home as an example: we have an Arcade sub but the kids rarely use it; we used our free Apple TV+ trial to watch a documentary but haven’t been tempted back; and while we use Apple Music, other family members got Spotify free with their phones. There’s an irony here. Tech firms were hailed as cord-cutters, freeing us from the tyranny of satellite or cable TV bundles that had channels we’d rarely or never use. And now they’re pushing bundles that include online services that some of us may rarely or never use. If you’re going to use all the services in your chosen tier, Apple One is great value. And if not, best stick to individual subscriptions for now. CARRIE MARSHALL