According to CNBC, severalAnalystpredict,appleThe company may charge monthly fees of up to $20 (currently about RMB 143) for its upcoming advanced AI features to further drive growth in its lucrative services business.
Apple plans to launch a new feature called 'Apple Watch' on some of its devices later this year. Apple Intelligence When the company announced the system in June, it promised to enhance its Siri voice assistant and introduce a range of features such as automatically generating emails and images. Although the rollout of these features will be gradual and will not be available initially in regions such as China and Europe, analysts saidApple may charge subscription fees for more premium apps.
Neil Shah, partner at Counterpoint Research, said that investing in artificial intelligence is expensive and Apple wants to pass on some of these costs to users. "Software and services make it easier for Apple to pass on the costs through the Apple One subscription model," Shah said.
Currently, Apple One costs $19.95 per month (about 143 RMB), and users can use a variety of Apple services including Apple Music. Shah said,Apple will likely charge $10 to $20 for more advanced AI features, perhaps as part of Apple One.
Apple's services division had revenue of $24.2 billion in the second quarter. "Apple is one of the few connected device companies that has successfully monetized value-added services," said Ben Wood, chief research officer at CCS Insight.
"As a result, it has set a precedent for users that they must pay for more advanced services. Based on this, it cannot be ruled out that Apple may choose to charge for more advanced features in its Apple Intelligence products." Wood added that Apple Intelligence could provide the US giant with the option of launching bundled subscription services, combining various services under one price. But he also said that Apple is also reluctant to dilute the revenue of individual product subscriptions.
It’s not uncommon for tech companies to charge for their AI products. For example, OpenAI charges a subscription fee for more advanced ChatGPT features, and Microsoft also charges for its AI Copilot tool.
Apple's biggest rival, Samsung, has already begun rolling out its own artificial intelligence service called Galaxy AI, but its mobile chief said last month thatThe company is still considering various revenue models for its software.
For Apple, AI has the opportunity to further lock in its already loyal customer base, Shah said, because Apple Intelligence will learn from user behavior and become more personalized. "The beauty of AI is that the more you use it, the more it learns about you," he said.You are locked into this model because you cannot bring your model from Apple to Android.” Shah said, “That’s where you start using it more and more, you get used to it, and that’s the key to Apple’s monetization.”