Apple is developing a new subscription model that would provide pricey gadgets to consumers for ostensibly affordable monthly fees, according to Bloomberg, which said the new business scheme could be deployed as soon as the end of 2022.

The report provides unnamed sources and sketchy details, but has given the tech press all it needs to jump into speculation ... as in, what if everyone who owned an iPhone had access to services like Apple TV Plus?

Clearly, Apple likes the subscription model. In the first fiscal quarter of 2022, Apple reported revenue of nearly $20 billion from selling subscription-based services.

And it likes bundling its subscription services. 

In late 2020, Apple introduced its "Apple One" bundling strategy, packaging together services including Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade and iCloud storage in tiers ranging from $19.95 - $29.95 a month. 

Currently, you can buy devices like the highly popular iPhone from Apple in installments, paying for it in 12 - 24 monthly payments. That's a separate bill from your service subscriptions, but what if the device subscription were to be bundled with services like Apple TV Plus under the Apple One strategy?

With 113 million iPhone users in the U.S. alone, according to 2021 Statista data, that could dramatically increase the subscriber count, as yet unknown, for services like Apple TV Plus. 

Consider that there are only around 75 million U.S. subscribers for the leading subscription service, Netflix. 

Apple has goosed uptake of Apple TV Plus by offering the service for free promotional periods with the purchase of Apple hardware.

But if distribution of the subscription streaming service were permanently tethered to popular hardware, it could truly change the game in terms of Apple TV Plus scale. ■

Apple has a big problem with television and it’s called distribution. Or lack thereof, as the case may be. 

This was the proverbial elephant in the room during yesterday’s Apple event, though they seemingly did nothing to address it.

Instead they rolled out something called Apple One that came with a whole lot of non-TV subscriptions that didn’t seem all that compelling, especially if you’re a Spotify user and the idea of having to recreate all your playlists and preferences just to save a few dollars fills you with dread.

I could go off on how no one really needs yet another fitness app, or complain about Apple News, which still doesn’t recognize that I’m already a Wall Street Journal subscriber. But those are merely distractions from the main issue--how does Apple plan to distribute Apple TV Plus, its wannabe TV bundling service?

It’s a disappointment (I’m not mad at you Tim Cook, just disappointed) because what Apple has cooked up is a pretty good deal for both consumers and programmers.

Consumers get an easy-to-manage TV interface with the easy-on-the-eyes, easy-on-the-brain UX Apple is known for, while programmers don’t need to give up ad revenue, a tribute they need to pay to both Roku and Amazon.

As a result, Apple has been able to strike deals with all of the new SVOD offerings (aka "Flixes")--Peacock and HBO Max in particular--which gives them a broader array of Flixes than their competitors.

But what is the use of having a well designed, well thought out pay TV aggregation service if very few users can actually get their hands on it?

There is, of course, the actual Apple TV device, the one that costs $180 vs. Roku and Amazon’s $29, which is why it’s not even a factor anymore. (Most surveys have Apple TV’s share of the U.S. streaming device market at somewhere in the 10%-15% range, vs. Roku and Amazon which are in the 35%-40% range.)

What’s baffling here is the price point, as Apple has worked with consumers on this in the past, when it realized back in the 00s that not everyone could afford an iPod and thus rolled out both the Nano and the Shuffle, low-priced devices that put That Apple Magic into everyone’s hands. (Or the pockets of their running shorts, anyway.)

Back to Apple TV though. Apple recently struck a deal with Vizio, the second largest smart TV manufacturer in the U.S., to have the Apple TV Plus app live on the home screen of Vizio smart TVs,  where it will be one of the many apps available via SmartCast, VIZIO’s well-designed operating system. 

Viewers will thus need to actively seek out the Apple TV app if they want to connect to other apps via Apple TV, and I just don’t see most of them taking that extra step unless there’s a compelling reason for them to do so. (There’s not.)

While Apple TV Plus may not have much distribution on smart TVs or connected devices, it does live on every iPhone, iPad and Macbook where it can be cast to your TV via Apple’s proprietary AirPlay service.

This would seem like a seamless solution, only AirPlay is far from seamless.

It’s very buggy, something borne out both by personal experience and by the sizable number of posts and social media complaints about it. It also has an annoying design flaw: if I start watching something on my laptop and then send it to my TV via AirPlay, I need to keep both the browser window and the laptop open in order for the movie or show to keep playing. This immediately takes me back to early Netflix days when you’d need to connect your laptop to the TV with an HDMI cable and then balance the laptop, still open, somewhere in HDMI cable distance of the TV.

So that door seems to be shut as well.

Apple TV does have apps on both Roku and Amazon, but neither service is going to let Apple be an aggregator, at least not when they’re trying to be aggregators, too. And then there’s the ad business both services are intent on making happen.

Which brings us back to my original question: How is Apple planning to make bundled TV packages the core of its software offering without any sort of distribution?

Bundling is clearly the future, but it won't necessarily involve the services Apple is pushing. It's more likely the bundle of services people already have--Spotify, Google Drive and thousands of free YouTube workout videos. Those new bundles are going to be TV-centric bundles of Flixes and FASTs, with broadband thrown if the bundler is an MVPD.

While in the ideal world, those bundles would consist of something like “pick any four services for just $29.99/month,” it’s far more likely that they will be considerably more random than that. And they'll be based on whatever deals the bundler in question can strike, which in turn will be based on which services are most in need of an influx of new subscribers at the time the deal is struck.

The likely bundling behemoths will be the MVPDs (who can also bundle in broadband), the streaming device manufacturers (who will make the apps a part of their channel store offering) and independents like Paket Media, a startup that plans to put programmers in a position of power.

As for Apple, I truly do hope they figure it out, but right now nothing they’re doing seems to make a whole lot of sense.

Apple launched a $29.95-a-month bundle featuring all its subscription services, including a new workout service called Fitness Plus, as part of a somewhat different fall hardware announcement. 

The pre-recorded event at Apple Park in Cupertino also featured refreshed versions of its iPad line, especially the long-neglected iPad Air, and two new models of the Apple Watch, Series 6 and a lower-cost SE line. 

Not included in the day’s announcements was any news about the company’s iconic iPhones, which reportedly have been hampered by pandemic-caused production delays. Normally, the year’s new iPhones dominate Apple’s traditional September announcement event. News about an expected four new iPhone models, all with 5G mobile technology, is now expected next month, possibly slightly impacting the company’s holiday season earnings.  

Also read: ‘Apple One’ Initiative Seeks to Bundle Services like Apple Music and Apple TV Plus

The Apple One subscription bundle announced Tuesday comes in three flavors, from a $14.95-a-month “Individual” plan to a $29.95-a-month “Premier” plan. All three offerings include Apple’s TV Plus video subscription, plus Apple Music, gaming service Arcade, plus varying amounts of iCloud storage and how many accounts get access. 

The premier plan adds the Fitness Plus service, which otherwise would cost $9.99 a month, and News+, the company’s news and magazine service, and makes all the bundled services available for up to six accounts.  

“Apple One gives you all the services you need in one package,” said Lori Malm, Apple Director, Services. 

As demand for iPhones has flattened, Apple has placed increasing emphasis on growing its services revenues, surpassing a goal set three years ago of $50 billion annually in subscription revenues. In the company’s last quarterly earnings announcement, Apple said its services division generated more than $13 billion in revenues.

The Fitness Plus service could further boost subscription efforts, especially with the ongoing pandemic complicating the reopening of gyms, yoga facilities and other workout centers for millions.

Fitness Plus will feature multiple genres of Apple-curated music, with workouts of 10 different sectors (from high-intensity training and dance to meditative cool-downs and yoga) led by a team of professional fitness trainers. New workouts will be created weekly. 

The new service also integrates with the company’s best-selling watches in a new way, gathering workout data and displaying it on the watch face and on new apps for connected Apple TVs, iPads and iPhones that are playing back the workout as the user follows along. 

As has been the company’s habit during public events in the months since Apple TV+ launched Nov. 1, Apple said little about its streaming service, other than to note it had received 18 Emmy nominations. 

The day’s announcements separately featured the Apple Watch Series 6, at prices beginning at $399, with a lower-cost, somewhat less capable new SE line starting at $279. The company will continue to offer its older Series 3 watches at $199. Orders are available immediately, with deliveries beginning Friday. 

New functionality includes a family tracking app, clearly positioned for the lower-cost devices, that would allow people to check on children or older family members who don’t have an iPhone, including with a sudden-fall detector app. 

The Series 6 also will feature an altimeter sensor to track changes in altitude, and a pulse oximeter sensor that uses infrared to estimate blood-oxygen levels in 15 seconds. 

Low-cost pulse oximeters have been a hot commodity during the pandemic, because dropping blood-oxygen percentages can be an early warning of issues from COVID-19 and other health problems. Those lower-cost devices, however, have been criticized on review sites for low accuracy. 

The company also significantly updated its full-size iPad line, beginning with an eighth-generation 10.2-inch iPad with much faster CPU and graphics-processing chips, Apple Pencil and keyboard compatibility and more, beginning at $329.

The company touted the power of the new iPads’ A14 Bionic processor. A new Pencil-related technology, Scribble, will be able to interpret handwriting as text among other tricks. The company also showcased machine-learning capabilities in the newly added Neural Engine chip for powering apps for photo editing, gesture-controlled music DJing, and multi-player games. 

As with the Watches, the new iPads are available for order immediately, with deliveries beginning Friday.

Separately, the company updated its lightweight Air model, too, with five colors, a much better screen, and much more powerful chips. 

In a likely harbinger of features on the next iPhones, the TouchID log-in system has been moved off the front face of the new iPad Airs to the on-off button on the side. That will provide more screen space in the same 10.9-inch device footprint.

Apple shares were up slightly on the day’s announcements, weeks after the company hit record high prices that valued the company at more than $2.2 trillion, followed by a 4-for-1 stock split on Aug. 30. Shares dropped notably earlier this month, part of a broader pullback in tech stocks leaving the company valued at slightly less than $2 trillion. 

Apple is looking to further accelerate the growth of its $50-a-year services business by offering discounts to customers who bundle offerings like Apple TV+ and Apple Music.

The initiative, reported by Bloomberg quoting inside sources, is called Apple One. According to the report, the service would be tiered, with more expensive iterations adding services like Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and iCloud storage to the base package of Apple Music and Apple TV+.

Apple One would offer savings in the range of $2 - $5 a month, the report said.

Apple One is reportedly set to launch later this year and is being spearheaded by Peter Stern, a top lieutenant of Apple services chief Eddie Cue. Notably, Apple is set to debut its latest iPhone in October, along with the newest iteration of its mobile device software, iOS 14.

Also read: Apple TV+: ‘Greyhound’ a ‘Summer Blockbuster,’ But SVOD Still Struggling with Production Shutdown

Since it launched Nov. 1, 2019, Apple TV+ has been a middling contender in the so-called streaming wars. Apple hasn’t released signup numbers for the SVOD service, but it’s believed that most of its users have come from a promotion that offers a year free of Apple TV+ (aka Apple TV Plus) to those who purchase new Apple devices such as iPhones.

However, in totality, the Apple services business is growing quickly, with the company touting a doubling of revenue for the business segment from 2016.

In pursuing Apple One, the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant is purportedly seeking to mimic the success of Amazon Prime, which has achieved a bedrock of steady subscription revenue for Amazon by bundling a variety of music, video streaming and other services to a core of free shipping of retail goods. 

Apple is looking to further accelerate the growth of its $50-a-year services business by offering discounts to customers who bundle offerings like Apple TV+ and Apple Music. 

The initiative, reported by Bloomberg quoting inside sources, is called Apple One. According to the report, the service would be tiered, with more expensive iterations adding services like Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and iCloud storage to the base package of Apple Music and Apple TV+.

Apple One would offer savings in the range of $2 - $5 a month, the report said. 

Apple One is reportedly set to launch later this year and is being spearheaded by Peter Stern, a top lieutenant of Apple services chief Eddie Cue. Notably, Apple is set to debut its latest iPhone in October, along with the newest iteration of its mobile device software, iOS 14.

Also read: Apple TV+: ‘Greyhound’ a ‘Summer Blockbuster,’ But SVOD Still Struggling with Production Shutdown

Since it launched Nov. 1, 2019, Apple TV+ has been a middling contender in the so-called streaming wars. Apple hasn’t released signup numbers for the SVOD service, but it’s believed that most of its users have come from a promotion that offers a year free of Apple TV+ (aka Apple TV Plus) to those who purchase new Apple devices such as iPhones. 

However, in totality, the Apple services business is growing quickly, with the company touting a doubling of revenue for the business segment from 2016. 

In pursuing Apple One, the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant is purportedly seeking to mimic the success of Amazon Prime, which has achieved a bedrock of steady subscription revenue for Amazon by bundling a variety of music, video streaming and other services to a core of free shipping of retail goods.