Apple One offers a lot of value, providing services for TV, games, music, and more. But there’s a key Apple service missing from the bundle that could really use its help: Books.
Apple Books keeps losing ground to competitors, and Apple One could help
Apple Books has long been my go-to service for both ebooks and audiobooks.
I find that the Books app provides a better experience than competitors like Kindle and Audible. And I’ve always been a fan of the Books editorial team’s work.
But it’s pretty evident that Books isn’t an area of success for Apple.
Amazon dominates the market, and now Spotify’s starting to do the same with audiobooks.
Making matters worse, today Amazon announced that it’s giving Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers access to audiobooks too.
I’ve argued before that Apple Books could be the beneficiary of a significant acquisition to integrate library content into its app.
But here’s a suggestion that could be much more palatable for Apple:
Add an Apple Books monthly allowance to the Apple One bundle.
Adding Apple Books to Apple One Premier
There are all kinds of ways Apple could do this.
Perhaps the simplest and most cost effective would be to let Premier subscribers gain access to one ebook or audiobook at a time, as long as they have an active subscription.
This could drive more existing Apple One users to upgrade from the Individual or Family plans to Premier instead. And for existing Premier subscribers, there’s one more reason to keep that $37.95 charge going.
Apple’s all-important services revenue would benefit. And Apple Books would too, since users would get in the habit of using an app that they currently probably ignore.
Top comment by James
Apple One bundling is terribly inflexible. I pay for an Individual subscription. I never use Apple Arcade, but I'd love to have Apple News+. At the same time, I am not willing to pay $13 more for News+ a la carte or $17 more for the Premier bundle to get it; so I currently just go without. Apple One should make it easy to mix & match a bundle that caters to the individual user / family. For example, the Individual could include iCloud 50GB + TV + Music + one other service of the user's choice, with additional add-ons (e.g., the family option, iCloud storage bump, another service, etc.) for $6/each.
Plus, Amazon and Spotify have already proven that users are willing to see books as part of a monthly subscription rather than being standalone purchases. Apple just hasn’t caught up to that trend.
Making this change would give Apple One a nice infusion of new benefits, and for a lot of users that could keep their monthly subscription payments flowing.
What do you think? Should Apple Books become part of Apple One? Let us know in the comments.
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