Your iPhone addiction is about to get even more expensive

Image: michael short / Getty Images

As Apple spent nearly two hours breathlessly detailing its many new services, I slowly got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

No, not because I’m inherently creeped out by the idea of Apple owning even more of my life (though it’s certainly a valid concern), but because I already know I’m going to sign up, and it’s not going to be cheap.

Monday’s celebrity-filled event marks a huge turning point for Apple. The tech giant, which became the most valuable company in the world thanks to the iPhone, can no longer rely on $1000+ phones alone. Instead, Cupertino must now figure out how to squeeze money out of services that have long been free, like its News and TV apps. 

Much has been said about how we got to this point, but the company’s big services event made clear just how much more this change will cost us. 

Consider my own spending habits: I already fork over more than sixty bucks a month to Apple thanks to the iPhone upgrade program, which locks me into a full two years of monthly payments, and iCloud. But Apple News+, the $9.99/month bundle that includes 300 magazines, The Wall Street Journal, and a handful of premium digital subscriptions is hard to resist — even if it puts my monthly Apple bill at more than $70. 

We don’t yet know how much Apple Arcade, the company’s new subscription gaming service, or Apple TV+, its premium video streaming service, will cost, but consider Apple’s silence a good sign they’ll get premium price tags to match the content. 

Put it all together and the amount I could end up spending just to maintain my iPhone addiction is getting alarmingly high. And that doesn’t even include Apple Music (which I no longer pay for), or the $20 a month I spend in the App Store on app subscriptions and one-off app purchases (of which Apple gets a sizable cut).

Yes, I know I don’t have to pay for any of these services, but that’s the whole point. I’m already hooked on my iPhone, why wouldn’t I want to make it even better by having more magazines than I could ever read at my fingertips, or access to the very best mobile games I can’t get anywhere else?

Whether or not these services are actually the best-in-class experiences Tim Cook has promised is almost besides the point. Apple’s entire services business has long been predicated not on the fact that its services are necessarily superior to everyone else’s, but that they’re so much more convenient. 

Consider iCloud, one of Apple’s oldest (and most mundane) services. There are tons of cloud storage companies, many of which are far less buggy and offer more features than iCloud. But the nature of Apple’s walled garden means iCloud is the by far the easiest option, particularly if you want to back up iMessages and other essential parts of your iPhone. 

Likewise with TV+, News+, and Apple Arcade — these pricey services aren’t necessarily unique, but they’ll be far easier to set up and use than any of their competitors. And, most importantly, they’re meant to make your already expensive iPhone that much better. Maybe you’ll even feel like you’re sorely missing out if you don’t pay for them. 

Just consider it part of the cost of your iPhone.