Apple bundles services with Apple One, unveils Apple Fitness Plus
Apple on Tuesday announced that it's bundling its growing list services, including iCloud and Apple Music into one package with one price tag. It also added Apple Fitness Plus to its list of services, an offering that's sure to create some stiff competition for digital workout companies like Peloton and ClassPass.
ZDNET Recommends
Also: Everything Apple announced at its Time Flies event
The new bundle of services is called Apple One. However, it's rolling out with three options:
The "individual plan" includes Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud storage for $14.95 per month. The "family plan" extends access to these services to up to six family members for $19.95 per month. Lastly, the "premier" plan includes Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, and Apple Arcade, as well as Apple News Plus, 2TB of iCloud, and the new Apple Fitness Plus, for $29.95 per month. The premier plan can be shared with up to six family members.
The bundle will be available this fall, and the first 30 days will be free.
SEE: Apple's 2020 Event: What business pros need to know (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
Services is a fast-growing and critical segment for Apple. In July, the company reported that services revenue in Q3 came to $13.16 billion -- up 15% from a year prior and a key driver of Apple's stellar quarter. Multiple services in Q3 posted all-time record performance and strong double-digit growth. As of August, Apple had more than 550 million paid subscriptions across the services on its platform, up 130 million from a year earlier. The company aims to reach 600 million paid subscriptions before the end of 2020.
Apple continues to grow its services business with the new Apple Fitness Plus, which is effectively a subscription to a broad range of virtual workout classes that connects your workouts to the health metrics collected via the Apple Watch.
Each week, the service will offer new workouts across a range of times and instructors, spanning multiple kinds of workouts. It's launching with classes in yoga, cycling, dance, treadmill walk and run, strength, core, HIIT, rowing, and mindful cooldowns. Many require just a set of weights or no equipment at all.
Also: Apple's event: Watch the Apple Watch Series 6 and iPad Air get unveiled here
Fitness Plus will be available to Apple Watch customers as a subscription service before the end of the year for $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year. Customers will be able to share the subscription with up to five other people in their family with Family Sharing. Those purchasing an Apple Watch will get three months free.
With the service, customers choose a workout from a catalog of videos from their iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. When they start the video, the workout syncs up with the iWatch app and sends the user's relevant health metrics to the screen on which they're viewing the workout.
The metrics are visible to keep users motivated through their workout. Users will also be able to see the progress they make on their activity rings. At the end of a workout, a summary of the data is shown on screen.
Apple also stressed that user data will be kept private -- the service is powered using on-device intelligence, and neither the calories burned, nor the workouts and trainers you choose will be stored with your Apple ID.