Apple may charge users of its ecosystem up to $20 a month for advanced artificial intelligence features, CNBC writes, citing analysts, as the company seeks to stimulate growth in its lucrative services line.
Image source: apple.com
This year, Apple intends to begin rolling out its Apple Intelligence AI system to select devices. It was announced in June: a package of features includes an improved Siri voice assistant, as well as image and text generation. It will roll out slowly – for example, in Europe and China these functions are still blocked, and the company may charge a fee for the most advanced solutions, analysts are sure. According to one version, the paid version of Apple Intelligence will cost between $10 and $20 per month, and it will be added to the Apple One subscription, which currently costs $19.95 per month and includes access to various company services, including Apple Music.
Investing in AI doesn’t come cheap, and Apple may well decide to pass those costs on to users. The services business brought in $24.2 billion for the company in the last quarter, and this is a unique case because other equipment manufacturers are having difficulty monetizing software solutions. Apple has set a precedent by forcing consumers to pay for premium services, and it cannot be ruled out that the company will start charging for advanced features in the Apple Intelligence suite.
Not all players in the industry are ready to take this measure. OpenAI charges a subscription fee for advanced ChatGPT features, and Microsoft is already making money from Copilot AI. At the same time, Samsung is still only exploring the possibility of making access to its Galaxy AI platform paid for. Apple may have a long-term strategy, suggests Counterpoint Research partner Neil Shah. “The beauty of AI is that as it is used, it learns the user, and the user locks himself into the model itself because he cannot transfer his model from Apple to Android. He starts using [Apple Intelligence] more and more, he gets more used to it – and then Apple’s monetization comes into play,” the analyst said.