“OK, so I just made up a word, but it’s the best word I can think of for one of the biggest new trends with Apple’s business. One that has the potential to dramatically change its relationship with its customers,” Jan Dawson writes for Tech.pinions. “The trend I’m referring to is the increasing move at Apple to establish recurring monthly revenue relationships with its customers and move away from merely having periodic one-off payments for hardware. I think there are several very positive things that could come out of this for Apple but I think there’s also potential for a specific downside to this shift.”
“As a company which began selling hardware and, to a lesser extent, software rather than services, Apple has dabbled over the years with various subscriptions,” Dawson writes. “But over the last several years, Apple’s number of monthly subscription services and their centrality to its product offerings have increased quite a bit.”
“As of today, an avid user of Apple devices and their associated services could easily be spending $50 per month through their iTunes account on a combination of automatically-renewing services, billed monthly. If Apple launches a TV/video subscription service at some point (as seems likely), that total monthly bill could easily rise to $80-100,” Dawson writes. “With the iPhone Upgrade Program, Apple is applying this same subscription and monthly payment model to buying hardware.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As Dawson points out, there is a danger here. The monthly “Apple Bill” is becoming significant and Apple runs the risk of being regarded as are other companies that bill monthly: PITAs like the cable company, the electric company, the “phone” company, etc.
We’d like to see Apple offer some sort of package deal that unifies all of this stuff into manageable bundles of services. One lower price for a bundle of Apple Music, iPhone Upgrade Program, iCloud storage, the forthcoming Apple TV subscriptions, etc.