Apple One: For whom the service bundle could be worthwhile

Martin Jungfer

16.9.2020

Translation: machine translated

Apple is consolidating its service offerings as Apple One. In Switzerland, you can now buy cloud storage, AppleTV+, Arcade and Apple Music for a flat monthly price. Should this make you an Apple disciple?

At the keynote, some were disappointed that the new iPhone had not yet been unveiled. Others were happy about more colourful iPads or the new Watch, which measures the oxygen in your blood. The fact that Apple is offering all of its services in a new bundle, on the other hand, was only a side note in the reporting to date. Rightly so? Let's take a look at what Apple One contains. For the price of 18.50 francs per month, you get Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and 50 GB of iCloud storage. As Apple has kindly already calculated on the page with the offer, you can therefore save 7 francs per month - but only if you buy all services separately.

Apple One pays off with Arcade or with TV+

But who does that? Okay, you'll need the iCloud storage plan at some point if you take a lot of photos with your iPhone. Then you'll pay one franc for 50 GB or three francs for 200 GB. And maybe you have a paid plan from Apple Music for 12.90 francs. Or you're on Spotify for the same price. If you use Apple TV+ at all, it's currently free because Apple gave it to you as a gift when you bought a device in the past few months; otherwise it costs six francs a month. The same amount as for the Arcade gaming offer.

So the maths is pretty simple: If you're a current Apple Music subscriber, have a storage plan and are thinking about treating yourself to Apple TV+ or Arcade (or even both), Apple One is a good deal for you. On the other hand, if you're happy with Spotify and only have a small cloud storage subscription with Apple, there's really no financial reason to switch to Apple One. Quite apart from the fact that if you switch from Spotify to Apple Music, you'll first have to tidy up your playlists. How to do this is described here by the way

Apple One as an offer for the family

If you're thinking about using Apple One for your family, things get more interesting. It costs 25.50 francs per month for up to five people. That's a saving of nine francs compared to buying the services individually. And for families, shared cloud storage and of course the Arcade offer are much more attractive than for individual users.

My conclusion: With its One offer, Apple is sure to attract even more people. As a package, even weaker services - Music compared to Spotify or Arcade compared to other gaming subscriptions - are attractively priced. And 25.50 francs per month for a virtually all-round carefree package should be attractive enough for many families. The Apple News and Fitness+ service, which is currently only available in the USA, would make the package even more interesting. <p

Martin Jungfer

Head of Content

Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment. more