Recently, before August wrapped up, an analyst chimed in to suggest that, in an effort to help defuse any negative feedback regarding the price for Apple’s upcoming flagship iPhone, the company may consider bundling a pair of its services together along with the phone. Specifically, with the iPhone 8, future owners may also get a free subscription to Apple Music and iCloud storage.
Both of those subscriptions would be for a year, so if you want Apple Music that’d save you $120, and if you want 200GB of iCloud storage, that’s $36 a month. Saving just over $150 for a year is pretty nice, and it would probably help garner some positive attention whether the phone’s as expensive as some folks think it will be or not.
The question, of course, is whether or not it would make a bit of difference.
Word on the street for quite some time has been that the iPhone 8 will start at $999. That’s $30 more than the iPhone 7 Plus with 256GB of built-in storage (if you buy it from Apple right now). And yes, Apple is changing things around in a big way with this year’s iPhone. It’s going to be completely different than any model before it. Will it have the same things as other phones already on the market, on devices that don’t cost as much? Yes. But, phones are getting more expensive. Just look at the Galaxy Note 8 from Samsung, which is priced around $940 or so depending on where you get it.
So, priced at $999 but you get to save more than $150 in Apple services. It’s hard to argue that that wouldn’t be a good deal for someone who isn’t already paying for those services. I pay for 200GB of iCloud storage per month, and I’ve gone back-and-forth with Apple Music, so a deal like this could be beneficial. But, I’ll be honest: It wouldn’t convince me to buy an iPhone 8 if I was on the fence.
Would it be enough to sway a potential buyer who isn’t going to pay for iCloud or Apple Music? A friend of mine is using a Galaxy S8 right now and he’s told me that he is considering switching to the iPhone 8 when it becomes available. I asked him if he’d be interested in getting the Music/iCloud bundle, and he said no because he uses other cloud storage options and he doesn’t want to use Apple Music. He’s not invested in the Apple ecosystem like Apple would like, so these services just don’t have the same sway.
And what about the people who are already planning on buying the iPhone 8? Who already are invested in Apple’s ecosystem? If you already know you’re going to buy an iPhone 8, does this bundle speak to you? Is it something that is making your purchase even more of a sure thing?
I don’t see the bundle as being a bad thing at all. It should be an easy move for Apple to make, as it means more people using their services right out of the gate — and not just the free option (for iCloud, since Apple Music doesn’t have a free option). But if Apple wants the bundle to be some kind of shining force that somehow makes the iPhone 8’s price tag seem less daunting, well, I don’t really think that’ll be the case.
Do you think Apple should, or even will, bundle Music and iCloud storage subscriptions with the purchase of an iPhone 8? Do you think it will matter if they do or not, when considering the upcoming flagship’s price?
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