The Apple Ecosystem - of Services
Last week we looked at the Apple hardware ecosystem. We showed how iPhone and to a lesser extent iPad make up the bulk of multiple device ownership. As we think about the ways Apple sells hardware to its customer base, we also should consider the wide range of services that Apple offers. This is the Apple Services Ecosystem, if you will.
Services or apps comprise a critical part of Apple's offerings. Apple makes every effort to offer proprietary services to owners of all of its devices to keep them happy and loyal, and add to their revenue potential. Data on service usage suggests that while some of them enjoy significant penetration, use of all of them by individual customers remains relatively low.
Here we look at five key, paid services:
Apple Music
Apple TV+
Apple Podcasts
Apple News+
iCloud storage.
We do not have data on use of Apple Arcade and Apple Fitness+.
Apple offers these services separately and also in packages as part of Apple One. Individually, they cost from $10-13/month, with the exception of expanded iCloud storage which starts at $.99 per month. Apple One subscriptions range from $20/month for a single user to $26 and $38 per month for multiple apps for family groups. When we survey current Apple customers (ones that bought an iPhone, iPad, Mac computer, or Apple Watch) we also ask which Apple services they currently use.
iCloud remains very popular, with just under two-thirds of Apple customers paying for some expanded iCloud storage (Chart 1). Apple Music has also reached a majority of Apple customers. Other services capture 30-40% of Apple customers.