Apple One Wants You to Pay More To Bundle Services You Don’t Want
How I pay less for exactly what I use
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Late last month, Apple launched its new subscription bundle, Apple One, which offers three tiers of bundled Apple services designed to save you money. They’re also designed to convince you to sign up for services that you don’t need, or want, in the first place.
I gave Apple One a look when the company first announced it on September 15, but instead of signing up, I decided to move more of my photos over to Google Photos in an effort to reduce the amount of iCloud storage my family pays for every month. Then last week, when Google announced that it will stop offering free photo storage, I decided to give Apple One another look.
Now my head hurts.
Here are the Apple One tiers, according to Apple:
The first two tiers are basically the same and only differ by how many people you can share them with and how much iCloud storage Apple gives you. These two tiers are probably great if you or your family get your music and video games from Apple, you enjoy a few shows that stream exclusively on Apple TV+, and you don’t depend on iCloud for storage — 50 GB for an individual and 200 GB for a family won’t get you far.
The Premier plan offers 2 TB of iCloud storage, which is more than enough for most families, plus two additional services: Apple News and Apple Fitness+ (which isn’t available yet). Here’s how those services breakdown if you were to pay for them individually:
Apple Music Family Plan $14.99/month
Apple TV+ $4.99/month
Apple Arcade $4.99/month
2 TB of iCloud storage $9.99/month
Apple News+ $9.99/month
Apple Fitness Plus $9.99/month
The a la carte cost for all these services combined would be $54.94. But the Apple One Premier Tier is only $29.95, which means you’ll save $24.99. That’s almost a 50% savings. An obvious choice? Not for my family it isn’t.
