BBG: Apple to launch new subscription plan, ‘Apple One’

According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple is preparing to launch a new subscription plan called ‘Apple One.’ It is set to package Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple News+ with a tiered pricing scheme. Yahoo Finance’s The Final Round panel discuss the details of the new plan and how Apple may be making new moves in the fitness industry with an exercise app.

Video Transcript

MYLES UDLAND: Let's turn our attention now to what's going on in the world of Apple and their services business what you hear them-- heard them emphasize so much over the last couple of quarters. It appears the company is going to roll out a new Apple One subscription bundle, Dan Roberts, that I guess brings the whole family together. From your point of view, what would be the impetus to change the way they currently formulate their bundling? Is it about Apple TV becoming a fuller offering? Is it about the music? Where do you see this headed?

DAN ROBERTS: Well I think this sounds smart. And by the way, Bloomberg reporting that it might be called Apple One or that could just be an internal term, and this is an option you'll have with the new iPhones when they're unveiled in October. I think what smart here-- let's use me as an example. On the face of it, none of the Apple services interest me or appeal to me currently. You would be able to get Music, Arcade, Apple TV+, maybe Cloud, and then fitness. And we know that they're planning some kind of new fitness service.

At the moment, I would at first glance say, "Well, I don't want any of those." And especially take music, I already do Spotify, so it's not an either-or right now. You're not going to subscribe to both Apple Music and Spotify.

Now that said though, if we take someone who wants just one of those services, maybe someone who does already use Apple Music or someone like a Dan Howley, who's a gamer and wants the Apple Arcade, the idea of paying a cheaper fee and getting all of them bundled is pretty smart. And I think if you're a competitor that has any service that competes with any of these Apple services, you should be concerned.

If someone wants say Arcade and is interested in Apple's fitness product, but they currently subscribe to Spotify, but they see that they have an option to get the Apple bundle, maybe that makes that person switch over to Apple Music, since it comes with the bundle anyway. So I think that it's a shot across the bow at existing services that could get people to switch over to one of the Apple services, Cloud storage, especially if you throw that in.

You mentioned families there's going to some kind of family option, but I imagine there'll be multiple tiers. If they're smart, there will be something for you as an individual, something that's a little more expensive as a family deal, more premium options that have five services, whereas the basic option has three services.

And as you mentioned, I would also think it's a way to get Apple TV+ in more homes, because as of now, they've only had really The Morning Show as the hit show, I guess, of the platform. And if that show doesn't appeal to you, and the other shows weren't well reviewed, then you haven't had a reason yet to cough up the money to pay for yet another service, for Apple TV+. But if you're going to get it as part of a bundle, and you say, "Well, sure. OK I'll watch Apple TV+."

So if this is coming along, I think it's a way to maybe boost subscriptions for everything. I think Peloton should be watching and concerned. Spotify should be watching and concerned, so on.

MYLES UDLAND: Yeah, Peloton the stock under a little bit of pressure today or had been earlier in session right now. It's up about 1% but