Increase.

I received word this morning that Apple is raising the price of their Apple One Premier service by nearly 10% effective at the end of November (when my plan renews). This was the first email I saw this morning and I have to admit it really rubbed me the wrong way.

For those not in the Apple ecosystem, Apple One Premier is their online package that includes several components of their “lifestyle” approach to computing: 2TB of iCloud storage, Apple TV+, Apple Music, Fitness+, and Apple Arcade. Oh, it also includes Apple News+. I forget about that last one.

Apple is one of the richest, if not the richest company in the world. I know inflation is taking its toll on us all, but a 10% price hike for this package seems a bit much. While all corporations are focused on profit, in previous years Apple felt a little less like other corporations when it came to meeting bottom line expectations. Over the past few years that feeling has subsided and now it’s all about the corporate dollar.

I’m in the process of figuring out how to get away from Apple Premier One and go back to an a la carte approach. I’m the only one in the family that uses Apple Music, everyone uses Spotify. None of us News+ (the interface is a mess and it’s riddled with ads and really poor content). We have other storage providers in addition to iCloud. The biggies are probably iCloud Storage and Apple TV+. We’ll probably let the others drop away.

I tried to change my subscription this morning but by the 12th prompt to enter my password to get through the same screens over and over again I lost interest. If there’s one thing Apple does poorly it’s their online services and password authentication. Right on cue I had to re-enter my password for each of our HomePods. That was fun.

After all, It Just Works.