Apple Quietly Increases Prices for Some of its Services
Today Apple quietly increased the price of some of their services. The price increases are effective today for new subscribers. For existing customers, the new prices will be in effect in 30 days, or at their next renewal, whichever is first. Here is a breakdown of each of the services and the costs since 2021.
| Service | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Music | $9.99 | $10.99 | $10.99 |
| Apple Arcade | $4.99 | $4.99 | $6.99 |
| Apple TV+ | $4.99 | $6.99 | $9.99 |
| Apple News+ | $9.99 | $9.99 | $12.99 |
You are able to save a bit of money with an Apple One bundle, but these prices are also increasing. Here are the new prices for the Apple One bundles. For the Apple One bundles, this is the second price increase, with the first one being in October of last year.
| Bundle | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual | $14.95 | $16.95 | $19.95 |
| Family | $19.95 | $22.95 | $25.95 |
| Premier+ | $29.95 | $32.95 | $37.95 |
The overall increases since 2021 are 33.4% for the Individual plan, 30% for the Family plan, and 26.7% for the Premier plan. This is quite a bit.
My Thoughts
Included with the Apple One bundles is iCloud storage, which is good given how laughable the free offering of 5GB is.
This price increase is not really surprising given that other services are raising their prices as well. And just like the other services, Apple is not indicating why prices are increasing. The price increase is just another hit to consumers at a time when other services are also raising their prices.
Even though prices are increasing, I do not think a lot people will be cancelling. I am currently on the Family Apple One plan because at the time it made sense because I need the additional iCloud storage, however with the difference in price between the Individual plan and the Family plan, it might make more sense for me to go back to the Individual plan and pay for the 200GB of additional storage that I need. Although, to be honest, if I could pay for 500GB of iCloud storage for $4.99 a month, I would probably do that.
Source: MacRumors