Bundling seems to be a major way how people get the most bang for their buck in current society.
We have seen this over the years with streaming services, such as the popular Disney+ and Hulu bundles, along with the Paramount+ with Showtime bundle.
Apple currently has its own bundle called Apple One that includes paying a monthly fee of up to $37.95 a month that would have Apple services like Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, and 2TB of iCloud+ storage.
There is one bundle Apple needs to create and launch next year as it competes in the music streaming sector with Spotify, as well as in the digital bookshelf space with Amazon Kindle.
This bundle needs to be a merging of Apple Music with Apple Books. With it, users would get their normal access to Apple Music and Apple Music Classical, but then also get access to audiobooks and ebooks on Apple Books.
Apple could even create two tiers of it that include Apple Music + Apple Books and then the second tier being Apple Music + Apple Books + Apple News+.
Pricing for those tiers could be something like $14.99 a month and $19.99 a month, with one-month free trials to start.
I also think Apple should be doing this since there is certainly a need for encouragement for the younger generations to be reading. As much as I would love for them to be reading physical books, ebooks are a great alternative and more widely available.
We have already seen that reading has been more popular with millennials and Generation Z because of BookTok through TikTok. It also looks as though Generation Alpha could use some assistance too and a bundle like through Apple could be a proponent of that.
The reason for the second tier with Apple News+ could be because not only does that service has plenty of exclusive articles for users to read, but also includes popular digital magazines such as Time, AdWeek, The Atlantic, Entrepreneur, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, and a plethora of others to choose from.
On top of that, it includes some local and national newspapers as well, and articles that can be read to users instead of the user actually reading the article itself. Those types of articles can be useful if one is going for a walk, workout, or driving around their area while running errands.
As for what this bundle could be called, it could be called “Apple Light” and then “Apple Light+” for the tier with Apple News+. The “Light” would stand for “enlightening,” as in enlightening people through books, audiobooks, magazines, and art overall.
What Apple has the opportunity to do with bundles like these is to become a digital Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million. For some, obviously physical books and magazines are always going to be more desired, but having a subscription bundle like this could be exactly what Apple needs to be doing to further its ecosystem and getting younger generations in it.
How do you think my idea sounds? Comment below or let us know on X at @appleosophy.
