Evidence mounting for 'Apple One' Services bundle launch

AppleInsider

More evidence in code and web registries has surfaced suggesting that the rumored "Apple One" bundle of services is coming very soon.

Apple is anticipated to launch multiple new products at its "Time Flies" event on September 15, but not all of the launches may be for physical items. Following recent rumors and leaks, there seems to be a considerable chance Apple will be updating the collection of subscription services it offers to consumers.

Arriving one day after the discovery of the "Apple One" name in the Apple Music app for Android, Apple was reported on Saturday to have started registering domain names. As reported by MacRumors, Apple has seemingly registered the term "AppleOne" with multiple TLDs (top level domains) or domain name extensions.

Searches have uncovered a wide array of domain names registered with the term, including those covering .audio, .blog, .chat, .cloud, .club, .community, .film, .guide, .host, .space, .tech, and .website. While the registrations are given some level of anonymity as per the rules of each registrar, the domain names all seemingly point to the same Apple name servers.

Domain registration details for AppleOne.tech

The acquisition of domain names isn't new, but it is something that major brands have to invest in ahead of a product launch, to protect trademarks and other elements. For example, if unregistered, someone else could have caused mischief by registering the domain for themselves and pointed it towards a Google-related sales page.

Of other major domain versions, appleone.com is currently operated by a talent agency in Canada.

iOS code leaks

Also on Saturday, code references within iOS indicate that there's more elements to the service that are being put in place ahead of its launch. The additions were apparently made recently, according to 9to5Mac, which strongly suggests it was included specifically for the September 15 event.

Text strings include terms such as "Keep Apple One," "You can unsubscribe from Apple One and keep only what you want," and "Cancel Apple One," phrases that would typically be used in a dialog box for unsubscribing. Terms including "Family" and "Trial" are also shown.

The terms at least indicate that "Apple One" will be an optional subscription, and that a user's services won't necessarily be disabled entirely when they unsubscribe.

What is "Apple One?"

"Apple One" is anticipated to be a bundling of Apple's various online subscription services into one plan, which could provide users a discount if bought together. This is anticipated to include Apple Music, Apple TV , Apple Arcade, Apple News and iCloud Storage, and with different packages combining combinations of services together.

A basic tier of Apple Music and Apple TV+ may cost users $12.99 per month, representing a saving of $2 per month, while the addition of Apple Arcade may bring the cost to $21.99, or a $3 saving. The top tier with Apple News+ and an optional 2TB iCloud storage upgrade may cost $29.99 or $39.99, depending on if storage is included.

indieshack

Surely Apple wouldn’t be acquiring relevant domain names just a few days before product launch?

aderutter

For this to be successful I reckon it needs to be $20/£20 per month for everything including family sharing.
In my opinion each service is worth no more than $5/£5.
Currently, Music and News are way, way over priced.

22july2013

By doing this Apple is protecting its customers even if Apple has no plans to ever use any web page for this service.

22july2013

aderutter said:

For this to be successful I reckon it needs to be $20/£20 per month for everything including family sharing.
In my opinion each service is worth no more than $5/£5.
Currently, Music and News are way, way over priced.

Is your criticism with Apple or with all other streaming and online services like Spotify and Google? Spotify's streaming music is about the same price as Apple's, and Google's cloud services are nearly exactly the same price as Apple's. So I'm confused why you are picking on Apple alone? And I just looked up Microsoft's game streaming services, it's exactly the same as Apple Arcade (a penny higher, actually). Im happy to listen to your opinions, but please explain yourself. 

twokatmew

aderutter said:

For this to be successful I reckon it needs to be $20/£20 per month for everything including family sharing.
In my opinion each service is worth no more than $5/£5.
Currently, Music and News are way, way over priced.

Agreed. I’m only interested in TV+, News+ and Cloud Storage. Wish they’d mix and match any three services for a certain price. Not interested in the rest or the $40 monthly price tag. 

kidrock2199

indieshack said:

Surely Apple wouldn’t be acquiring relevant domain names just a few days before product launch?

That’s exactly what I was thinking. 

DAalseth

I just wish they'd rework iCloud. Add a couple more tiers and drop the price a bit. Other Apple Services I have no interest in bundled or not

kidrock2199

twokatmew said:

aderutter said:

For this to be successful I reckon it needs to be $20/£20 per month for everything including family sharing.
In my opinion each service is worth no more than $5/£5.
Currently, Music and News are way, way over priced.

Agreed. I’m only interested in TV+, News+ and Cloud Storage. Wish they’d mix and match any three services for a certain price. Not interested in the rest or the $40 monthly price tag. 

Same here. I have zero interest in Arcade. I only have iCloud, News+ and Apple Music. My TV+ is free for the next 11 months. But when that ends, it would be nice to bundle all those together for a small savings. 

crowley

indieshack said:

Surely Apple wouldn’t be acquiring relevant domain names just a few days before product launch?

Exactly what I was thinking.  If anything I'd say this was pointing towards it not being the product name, but Apple seeking to protect itself from cyber squatting trolls based off the rumours.

pairof9

aderutter said:

For this to be successful I reckon it needs to be $20/£20 per month for everything including family sharing.
In my opinion each service is worth no more than $5/£5.
Currently, Music and News are way, way over priced.

Yes, I’m curious as to how this will include/exclude Family Sharing. Currently, I have iCloud 2TB, Apple New+, Apple TV+ (free), and iTunes Match. Even if/when I pay for the Apple TV+, that comes to $26/mo. and everyone in the family has access to these features.

The #1 reason I don’t have Apple Music is the Family price is too high (and I’m old so accumulated a boatload of digital songs). iTunes Match suffices nicely at less than 15% the price. Give up new, unlimited music vs only 10K songs and $13/mo

aderutter

22july2013 said:

aderutter said:

For this to be successful I reckon it needs to be $20/£20 per month for everything including family sharing.
In my opinion each service is worth no more than $5/£5.
Currently, Music and News are way, way over priced.

Is your criticism with Apple or with all other streaming and online services like Spotify and Google? Spotify's streaming music is about the same price as Apple's, and Google's cloud services are nearly exactly the same price as Apple's. So I'm confused why you are picking on Apple alone? And I just looked up Microsoft's game streaming services, it's exactly the same as Apple Arcade (a penny higher, actually). Im happy to listen to your opinions, but please explain yourself. 

Not singling anyone out. Just my personal opinion on value. I don’t see many people signing up for $480/£480 a year for these services.

For me Netflix provides okay value, at a push. AppleTV+ looks expensive for the amount of content I’d watch, so glad it was free for a year.

Apple Music and Spotify both are very highly priced imho. I’m a big music fan, with a large music library and prefer to buy CDs especially if I can buy them direct from the artist. I think Apple Music and Spotify are a step up from radio but not a big one given that you own nothing if you  stop subscribing. 

News? I am used to news sources being free, or a tiny amount for a newspaper or free at anytime on the TV, but I didn’t really watch or consume much news at all until this pandemic started.

I think overall I’m not a fan of streaming or downloads, for gaming I prefer buying disc based versions forPlayStation for example.
I do subscribe to PlayStationPlus where you get a couple of decent games most months, but think that too is actually not cheap at $5\£5 a month. Maybe it’s me that is cheap, lol.

OutdoorAppDeveloper

Remember during the 2008 banking crisis how they would bundle together a bunch of bad loans and sell them all together? That's how I feel about Apple One.

22july2013

aderutter said:

22july2013 said:

aderutter said:

For this to be successful I reckon it needs to be $20/£20 per month for everything including family sharing.
In my opinion each service is worth no more than $5/£5.
Currently, Music and News are way, way over priced.

Is your criticism with Apple or with all other streaming and online services like Spotify and Google? Spotify's streaming music is about the same price as Apple's, and Google's cloud services are nearly exactly the same price as Apple's. So I'm confused why you are picking on Apple alone? And I just looked up Microsoft's game streaming services, it's exactly the same as Apple Arcade (a penny higher, actually). Im happy to listen to your opinions, but please explain yourself. 

Not singling anyone out. Just my personal opinion on value. I don’t see many people signing up for $480/£480 a year for these services.

For me Netflix provides okay value, at a push. AppleTV+ looks expensive for the amount of content I’d watch, so glad it was free for a year.

Apple Music and Spotify both are very highly priced imho. I’m a big music fan, with a large music library and prefer to buy CDs especially if I can buy them direct from the artist. I think Apple Music and Spotify are a step up from radio but not a big one given that you own nothing if you  stop subscribing. 

News? I am used to news sources being free, or a tiny amount for a newspaper or free at anytime on the TV, but I didn’t really watch or consume much news at all until this pandemic started.

I think overall I’m not a fan of streaming or downloads, for gaming I prefer buying disc based versions forPlayStation for example.
I do subscribe to PlayStationPlus where you get a couple of decent games most months, but think that too is actually not cheap at $5\£5 a month. Maybe it’s me that is cheap, lol.

I like how we are having a civil discussion despite having different opinions. I wouldn't pay $480 extra either, but since I'm already paying for most of Apple's services, it might actually be a step DOWN in cost. I'm an avid Internet news reader too, which is largely free, but it's infested with ads. I thought Apple News would be ad-free, but it isn't. It's not ad-infested but it's annoying to see ads when I'm paying. If I subscribed to newspapers online, would my experience be ad-free? Does anyone know?

SpamSandwich

OutdoorAppDeveloper said:

Remember during the 2008 banking crisis how they would bundle together a bunch of bad loans and sell them all together? That's how I feel about Apple One.

The difference is you’re not forced to buy Apple One.

bsnjon

Self described music fans saying Apple Music is over priced is ludicrous. While Apple pays artists noticeably more than most of the competition, it is a tiny amount of income to the people actually making the music. 

Calling this potential service “Apple One” would continue Apple’s really strange branding choices recently. (AppleTV+ being the worst of the lot) In addition time already having a product with “One” in the title, it the bundle of services will have multiple tiers, then it isn’t really “one” at all. 

DAalseth

OutdoorAppDeveloper said:

Remember during the 2008 banking crisis how they would bundle together a bunch of bad loans and sell them all together? That's how I feel about Apple One.

I can’t disagree. It may work for others, but I don’t have much interest. 

wood1208

Ala Carte is important when bundling. Hope Apple is smart to let you bundle whichever services you want and doing bundling, you enjoy certain discounted price.

randominternetperson

22july2013 said:

aderutter said:

22july2013 said:

aderutter said:

For this to be successful I reckon it needs to be $20/£20 per month for everything including family sharing.
In my opinion each service is worth no more than $5/£5.
Currently, Music and News are way, way over priced.

Is your criticism with Apple or with all other streaming and online services like Spotify and Google? Spotify's streaming music is about the same price as Apple's, and Google's cloud services are nearly exactly the same price as Apple's. So I'm confused why you are picking on Apple alone? And I just looked up Microsoft's game streaming services, it's exactly the same as Apple Arcade (a penny higher, actually). Im happy to listen to your opinions, but please explain yourself. 

Not singling anyone out. Just my personal opinion on value. I don’t see many people signing up for $480/£480 a year for these services.

For me Netflix provides okay value, at a push. AppleTV+ looks expensive for the amount of content I’d watch, so glad it was free for a year.

Apple Music and Spotify both are very highly priced imho. I’m a big music fan, with a large music library and prefer to buy CDs especially if I can buy them direct from the artist. I think Apple Music and Spotify are a step up from radio but not a big one given that you own nothing if you  stop subscribing. 

News? I am used to news sources being free, or a tiny amount for a newspaper or free at anytime on the TV, but I didn’t really watch or consume much news at all until this pandemic started.

I think overall I’m not a fan of streaming or downloads, for gaming I prefer buying disc based versions forPlayStation for example.
I do subscribe to PlayStationPlus where you get a couple of decent games most months, but think that too is actually not cheap at $5\£5 a month. Maybe it’s me that is cheap, lol.

I like how we are having a civil discussion despite having different opinions. I wouldn't pay $480 extra either, but since I'm already paying for most of Apple's services, it might actually be a step DOWN in cost. I'm an avid Internet news reader too, which is largely free, but it's infested with ads. I thought Apple News would be ad-free, but it isn't. It's not ad-infested but it's annoying to see ads when I'm paying. If I subscribed to newspapers online, would my experience be ad-free? Does anyone know?

If find it amusing that someone would describe the cost for a daily paper to be a "tiny amount."  That doesn't describe any of the major national papers.

And yes subscribers to the Washington Post online see lots of ads.  But physical newspapers and magazine always have had ads.

And the selling point for most people of Apple News+ is, presumably, the magazines.  If you enjoy the content from even a couple of the participating mags the price is a great deal.

caladanian

Roll these services also out in other countries. Else this is hypothetical for me at best.  

22july2013

randominternetperson said:

22july2013 said:

I like how we are having a civil discussion despite having different opinions. I wouldn't pay $480 extra either, but since I'm already paying for most of Apple's services, it might actually be a step DOWN in cost. I'm an avid Internet news reader too, which is largely free, but it's infested with ads. I thought Apple News would be ad-free, but it isn't. It's not ad-infested but it's annoying to see ads when I'm paying. If I subscribed to newspapers online, would my experience be ad-free? Does anyone know?

If find it amusing that someone would describe the cost for a daily paper to be a "tiny amount."  That doesn't describe any of the major national papers.

And yes subscribers to the Washington Post online see lots of ads.  But physical newspapers and magazine always have had ads.

And the selling point for most people of Apple News+ is, presumably, the magazines.  If you enjoy the content from even a couple of the participating mags the price is a great deal.

Yes, a voracious reader would consider Apple News+ to be the deal of the century. If WaPo or NYT wants my cash they should consider an ad-free tier. But another thing they should consider is a tier that guarantees they won't use my email address for anything; I should be able to set up an account without having to provide any email address. This is why I like Apple so much: respect for my privacy. They don't sell my email address, for example. WaPo? Who knows.