Summary
- Apple One should add a customizable plan that lets you choose the amount of iCloud storage and the services you want to use.
- Implementing AppleCare+ into Apple One would streamline subscription management for users, even without a discount.
- Including perks like early access to features, pre-order priority, and store discounts would significantly enhance the appeal.
Apple One is so close to being a must-have bundle service, which is why it’s frustrating that it still hasn’t tackled these few outstanding issues to better serve all users.
Apple One’s Model Is Flawed
The late 2010s saw a deluge of Apple subscription services launch, leading to the release of the Apple One bundle.
It’s a pretty good deal—even if the price is regularly hiked—if you want everything Apple has to offer at a reduced cost, including iCloud+, Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple Arcade. Premium tiers add Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+ alongside more iCloud storage, plus the ability to share the service with up to five other people.
However, there’s a rigidity to this model. Don’t plan to play games on Arcade or use a different music streaming service? Need more storage but don’t want News+ and Fitness+? If you fall even slightly outside its pre-set tiers, then it becomes a value loss.
A Customizable Model Would Work Better
The main way Apple could fix this is pretty simple: allow people to create custom plans.
For example, let’s say I want the base individual plan but need 2 TB of iCloud storage. Letting me increase that one element would be a start. At present, you can buy a second iCloud plan on top of Apple One, but that defeats the fundamental purpose of the service.
On top of this, users should be able to pick and choose between subscription services. Let me swap out Arcade for News+ on the individual tier or drop Music altogether from Premium. Cue any permutation of this that might apply to your needs.
The best model would be to have a single tier where you pick your iCloud+ storage and a minimum of two or three other services. The price of the plan could be rated, so adding Arcade would incur a lower added charge than Fitness+. This way, users get what they want, and Apple still gets the full discounted rate for every service used.
Allow Us to Add AppleCare+
Conspicuously absent from Apple One is AppleCare+, the company’s extended warranty subscription service.
Implementing AppleCare+ sounds like a nightmare at first pass given that it’s tied to individual devices and is priced differently depending on the device category. However, Apple could easily tap into the subscriptions tied to an account and add them to the Apple One bundle.
I’m not even expecting a discount here, but rather a way to keep all my Apple subscriptions within a single charge. This would be a value add even if AppleCare+ doesn’t get discounted itself.
However, on the off chance that Apple wants to boost AppleCare+ subscribers, a discount may not be a bad idea, especially for regions like Australia that have great consumer protection. As How-To Geek editor Tim Brookes put it, “we have great consumer protection here, so it’s basically a waste of money since a MacBook is expected to last longer than the (also better) two-year warranty.”
The only caveat here is that Apple would still need to provide an easy way to opt out of AppleCare+ on its own, though I imagine such a feature would be sacrosanct to a customizable model anyway.
Perks and Discounts Seal the Deal
Lastly, some perks would help make subscribers feel appreciated or even give them reasons alone to subscribe. Some ideas that come to mind include early access to new Apple Intelligence features (which would help Apple polish its AI before it’s propagated to everyone) or first dibs on pre-orders.
They could also offer store discounts, similar to Google One’s 10% store discount on select items. Apple doesn’t even need to go this deep (the 3% that Apple Card users get would be a fine starting point) and could block out big-ticket purchases, but a way to save on accessories would sweeten the deal with Apple One immensely. Apple stands to benefit from this as it would mean customers using its store rather than competing retailers.
Ultimately, I wouldn’t even mind a slightly lower price cut if it meant I could pick and choose my ideal Apple One plan. Until then, the math and logistics just don’t justify it for me.
