Maybe you religiously sign up for AppleCare when you buy a new Apple product. Maybe you do it every once in a while. Maybe you never do it. No matter your approach—well, maybe not the “I never sign up for it” people—there’s a new option in town: AppleCare One.
The new service, which Apple announced on Wednesday for customers in the U.S., gives you coverage for up to three Apple products for $19.99 a month and additional products for $5.99 per month per device—no matter what kind. You can even add your existing products if they’re up to four years old and what Apple describes as “in good condition,” which may require you do an Apple-provided diagnostic check.
For that monthly fee, you get all the coverage of AppleCare+, which means unlimited accidents1, battery coverage, and priority coverage. Additional fees apply for some coverages, based on the type of incident, ranging from $15 for accidental damage to your Apple TV to $299 for accidental damage to your Mac, Apple Display, or Apple Vision Pro.
Apple is also extending theft and loss protections to the iPad and Apple Watch, though deductibles and fees will apply. AppleCare One covers up to three total claims for theft or loss in a year across all your devices. (The newly launched individual AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss plans for iPad and Apple Watch each cover two incidents per year.)
AppleCare One certainly simplifies the pricing structure, especially for people with lots of Apple products, and it makes coverage more flexible, since you can adjust your plan at any time, swapping products out as you like. Traditionally, you’ve had a limited time to sign up for AppleCare: 60 days after the purchase of your device, and different devices have commanded different rates.
But is the bundle cost effective? Apple says in its release that “a customer can enroll their iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, and save up to $11 a month over enrolling in separate AppleCare+ plans for each device.”
Which…yes, they could. But herein lies the fine print, because in some cases it depends on what model devices you have. I could not find a comprehensive list of the breakdown of prices by model for the new plans, which don’t go into effect until tomorrow, but digging up a previous instance of the breakdown for iPads shows AppleCare+ for the iPad and iPad mini previously cost $3.49 per month or $34.99 per year, while a 13-inch iPad Pro ran you $8.49 per month or $84.99 per year. (The new plan going into effect tomorrow now “starts at” $4.99 per month for the iPad, though it does include the aforementioned theft and loss coverage.)
So, if you have a base level iPad ($4.99/month) and an Apple Watch (let’s say SE, since Apple says “from $2.99/mo.”) along with an iPhone (let’s say 16 e, since the new rates start at $9.99/month), it seems as though your monthly cost would be on the order of $18 per month, a bit less than the $19.99 AppleCare One fee. And even more so if you’re willing to sign up for a year of coverage for your devices—just $180 instead of the almost $240 for AppleCare One, which doesn’t offer an annual discount. But, of course, you lose the aforementioned flexibility.
In other words, your mileage may vary. I reached out to Apple for more clarification on the price breakdown, but had not heard back as of publication time.
So, why is the company rolling this out now? Well, let us not forget that AppleCare is part of Apple’s Services division, and the company is hot on increasing its revenue there. Like any insurance plan, Apple has run the math and decided that the amount it’s likely to bring in from the recurring revenue more than offsets however much it costs to do device repairs and replacements.
Apple is scheduled to hold its third-quarter financial results call in just over a week, on July 31, and it will undoubtedly tout this new plan as a great option for its customers. Which, again, it may be, depending on what devices you have and your predilection for damaging or losing them. But it’s also a great deal for Apple.
- Go ahead, butter up that iPhone! ↩
