Apple One family of devices
Apple has announced Apple One, its first service subscription service, will be available in Australia and New Zealand later this year. An exact launch date is unconfirmed, with the company saying it’ll launch in the spring.
It was launched recently alongside the Apple Watch Series, Apple Watch SE, eighth-generation iPad, and a new iPad Air via a pre-recorded presentation. The iPhone 12, as rumoured, did not make an appearance and will likely be announced in a separate later event either this month or next.
It’s the first time Apple will bundle its growing services into monthly payment packages, with Music, TV+, Arcade, iCloud, News+, and the newly announced Fitness+ home workout service based around the Apple Watch.
In Australia there will be three price tiers with up to all six services including Apple News+ and Fitness+. In New Zealand where News+ is not available, only two price tiers will be offered, neither of which include Fitness+ even though the service will be available in the region.
For AU$19.95, customers can subscribe to the Individual tier with Apple Music, TV+, Arcade, and 50GB iCloud storage, a saving of AU$9.50 per month against subscribing to all four separately. A Family plan costs AU$25.95 for the same services but 200GB of iCloud storage and the ability to share all the benefits with up to five other people, saving AU$12.50 per month.
Fork out AU$39.95 per month for the Premier tier and you get 2TB storage, and all the offered services including News+ and Fitness+. This can also be shared with five other people and saves AU$39 per month.
Credit: Apple New Zealanders can get the Individual plan for NZ$23.95 per month or the Family plan for NZ$31.95 per month.
Apple offering a subscription service like this is significant. We’re all used to paying for monthly standalone services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Microsoft 365, but Apple is still largely thought of as a hardware company. This push to tie customers into a services bundle is an attempt to make its hardware products stickier, and it is likely to be successful. A family using several Apple services is unlikely to want to suddenly get an Android phone the next time they go to upgrade.
The ‘One’ name echoes the branding of software services from other companies such as Microsoft OneDrive and Google One, the latter also being a service bundle. At every price tier Apple One includes a 30-day trial for any of the services that customers do not already have, a move designed to encourage you to opt for a more expensive tier. That said, the ability to cancel at any time and have up to six family members using one subscription with individual log ins is attractive.
Anyone keen to simplify their family’s access to services like music streaming, TV shows, and Cloud storage will be tempted to invest provided everyone is using Apple products. The only Apple service available via an Android app is Apple Music, but users of this app cannot use it in conjunction with Apple One.
