Apple’s new service pack, Apple One, has started showing up to Apple users, bundling a variety of subscription combinations including Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple News Plus, iCloud storage and Apple Fitness Plus just unveiled at one price.
The move declared at Apple’s online event in September follows Apple’s increased investment in services over the past three years.
Here you’ll get all you need to know about the Apple One, including costs, free trial periods, different plans, and available services. We’ll also let you know if your subscription will save you money.
What is Apple One?
Apple One is a subscription service that blends existing Apple services, allowing you to pay a monthly fee for more services at once.
It’s a bit similar to Amazon’s Prime services package. You don’t require to subscribe to Apple One to access these services; If the only thing that interests you is, say, Apple TV Plus, you can still pay five dollars a month as usual just for that.
When is Apple One available?
Now. At its September event, Apple executives said the Apple One would launch this fall. But last month, during a quarterly earnings report from the tech giant, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the package would launch on Friday, October 30.
Apple CFO Luca Maestri previously broke the news to Bloomberg in an interview, in which he also said Fitness Plus would arrive later this quarter.
How much does the Apple One cost? Is there a free trial?
Apple One offers three separate plans (see below), ranging from $15 to $30 per month. A 30-day free trial is available.
Apple One plan details
The launch is currently at an early stage, and not everyone sees the new subscription option on the Apple One. Here’s how to make sure it’s available to you:
- Open the App Store
- Tap your profile picture in the top right corner
- Touch subscriptions
- Look for a label that promotes Apple One.
You can also check the following steps in the Settings app:
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap your name at the top
- Touch subscriptions
- Look for a label that promotes Apple One.
You can also open the webpage in Safari on your iPhone or iPad.
How do I register for Apple One?
Sign up for Apple One on your iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. IOS 14, iPadOS 14, or TVOS 14. Later this fall, you’ll be able to connect to your Mac with macOS Big Sur.
To sign in, go to Settings, tap your Apple ID, then tap Subscriptions. Tap Get Apple One and choose the plan you want. Suppose you sign up for an individual Apple service. In that case, Apple will automatically recommend that the Apple One subscription be a better value, taking into account any other services you are already paying for.
What do the different Apple One plans entail?
The three plans vary in terms of the number of services, the number of people who can reach them, and the amount of iCloud storage allowed.
Here’s how they breakdown (and you can read the full comparison of each Apple One plan here):
- Individual plan: $15 (£15, AU$20) per month for four services for one person: Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, and iCloud (50 gigabytes of storage)
- Family plan: $20 (£20, AU$26) for 4 services for six family members: Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, and iCloud (200GB of storage)
- Premier Plan: $30 (£30, AU$40) for 6 services for six family members: Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, iCloud (2 terabytes of storage), Apple News Plus, and Apple Fitness Plus (in 100 countries and regions where they are available)
What do you get for each service?
Here’s what you obtain with each service available in Apple One packages and their cost in the US.
Apple Music: Apple’s music streaming service, your alternative to Spotify, includes 70 million songs from famous artists, without ads.
Autonomous cost: $10 per month; $15 per month per family.
Apple TV Plus: Apple’s movie and TV streaming service now offer 30 original shows, including comedies, dramas, documentaries and talk shows.
Freelance cost: $5 per month.
Apple Arcade: Apple’s mobile game subscription service includes over 130 games that you can play on iPhone ($599 at Apple), iPad ($275 at Back Market), Mac, iPod Touch ($160 at Amazon) and Apple TV USD in Best Buy).
Freelance cost: $5 per month.
iCloud Storage: Apple’s cloud storage service automatically gives you 5 gigabytes of free storage and lets you upgrade to get more space for your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, or PC.
Standalone cost: Free up to 5GB or $1 per month for 50GB, $3 per month for 200GB, or $10 per month for 2TB.
Apple News Plus: Apple’s news service gives you access to articles from hundreds of magazines and newspapers.
Freelance cost: $10 per month.
Apple Fitness Plus: Apple’s new fitness streaming service, launching later this year, features guided workouts designed for the Apple Watch ($399 at Apple), similar to Peloton Digital and Fitbit Premium.
Freelance cost: $10 per month.
Will Apple One save me money?
It depends on how many of the above services you have already subscribed to or want to subscribe to. If you subscribe to each of them individually, you will pay at least $40 per month so that the Premier plan would pay off as well.
According to Apple, the Apple One individual plan offers savings of over $6 per month compared to standard monthly rates.
In comparison, the Family plan offers savings of over $8 per month, and the Premier plan offers savings of over $8 per month. $25 per month or more at $300 per year.
The service people are most interested in is the least visible: the iCloud service for photos and backups. It’s already a popular service that virtually anyone who stores photos, videos, or downloads music needs.
If you’re already paying $10 a month for 2TB of iCloud storage and subscribing to, say, Apple Music, the Premier plan may be worth getting both and everything in between.
Do you need to register?
Sign up if …
You are already in the Apple ecosystem.
If each of your devices is from Apple, have an Apple Watch, iPhone, Macbook, iPad, and more, you’re probably ready for the Apple One.
Many of the services offered only work on your devices, but they will all work best on Apple products.
You don’t need all Apple products to use the service, but if you have plenty of them, you’ll get the most out of the experience.
You’ll need, for example, an Apple Watch for Fitness Plus, and you’ll be able to easily play Apple Arcade games on your tablet and phone if you have both.
You already have most or all of the services.
If you’ve already signed up for all Apple One services, signing up for the program itself is no problem as you will save money on the plan compared to individual prices.
Even if you only have most of the apps, but not all of them, it pays off – the price of the package will likely be equal to the amount you pay now so that you will get an additional app for free.
You don’t use a lot of fun apps.
If you’re amongst the few people who haven’t subscribed to a lot of entertainment apps yet, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play Pass, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc., then the Apple One could be perfect.
All in one place for a multitude of different media forms with games, movies, TV shows and music covering even the individual level.
This also extends to cloud storage – if you’re an Apple device user who needs a little digital storage space but still doesn’t pay for another service, it may be worth considering.
Do not register if …
You are an Android user.
Many Apple One apps, like Apple Arcade, only work on company devices; If you have an Android phone, you cannot take full advantage of this service.
Even if you are not loyal to the company and your devices fall between the Windows, Apple, and Android lines, you will be limited to what you can do on different devices, which is not exactly what you won’t expect from an all-inclusive package.
Instead, it may be worth opting for services that work on all devices like Netflix, Spotify, and others.
At a time when all business has their subscription service, it can be too easy to think that there are “too many” of them, and with the Apple One bundled together, they could easily be straw camels for humans with loads.
If you already own Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, and more, you probably have more TV shows, and movies than you all could ever watch, so you don’t need Apple TV Plus. Likewise, Apple Music is not required when you have Spotify, YouTube Music, or Deezer because most people will find that the music service is sufficient.
So if you already have monthly bills pouring out of your bank account like water from a broken mug, you might not need an Apple One.
You only want one of the apps.
If you’ve looked at the apps, Apple One offers and found only one or two that you’re interested in; you might be better off subscribing to them individually.
Apple One offers a reduced subscription price, but that only compares to the cost of all of its applications individually; If you don’t want them all, you’ll pay more for the services you don’t end up using.
