In the future, people may experience new things to experience Apple AI, although not for freebies.
Image Source: Ngantech
AI technologies become more immersive as time flies, and people keep relying on AI in their daily routines. Apple realized that was the golden moment for maximizing its market value to $4.7T market cap in the next few years by utilizing Apple Intelligence to the fullest.
What kind of Apple AI do they have?
Apple is not simply using Siri as the core feature of Apple AI; instead, Apple plans to make Apple Intelligence available in third-party apps, and customers may need to pay for that.
Apple also plans to include AI technologies in iCloud+, which is the iCloud but with extra features. The free version already provides basic necessities like voice assistants, simple predictive text, and image and voice recognition with limited features. However, if they want to use more advanced AI technologies and access premium apps like iCloud Private Relay, Hide My Email, HomeKit Secure Video, and Custom Email Domain, customers need to pay a monthly fee.
In the United States, the iCloud+ subscription costs from $0.99 for 50GB storage to $59.99 for 12TB storage. And the amount of cameras you can use on the HomeKit Secure Video also affects based on your subscription type. For the price comparison, you can see the price table below (more prices for different countries are available here).
| iCloud Storage | Number of camera available on HomeKit Secure Video | Price/month |
| 5 GB | 0 (You can’t use this feature without paying monthly subscription) | Free |
| 50 GB | 1 | $0.99 |
| 200 GB | 5 | $2.99 |
| 2 TB | Unlimited | $9.99 |
| 6 TB | Unlimited | $29.99 |
| 12 TB | Unlimited | $59.99 |
If you simply just want to experience AI technologies as freebies and you don’t mind having the limited access, then the free version is ready to go for you.
The Reason Apple Pushing iCloud+
Apple has a reason why they want to keep pushing iCloud+ to the fullest.
- More people are trying to keep their old devices as long as possible to avoid paying extra money for new phone
- Because people chose to keep their old iPhones and Macs, Apple have extra room to loosen its hardware upgrades and they have more time to finish other bugs and other features that occurred in previous updates.
To compensate the loss profit, Apple decided to maximize its profit on cloud subscriptions through iCloud+. In the WWDC 2024 video, Apple also did not announce any hardware leaks like new iPhone 16 or Mac, but instead they announced new software updates for iPhone called iOS 18, and Mac called MacOS Sequoia.
Apple Still Respects Users’ Privacy.
Apple is currently trying hard to leverage its profit level. However, Apple still understands privacy matters for its customers, which was proven by Apple’s rejection of collaborating with Meta because Meta’s powerful AI, LlaMa 3, still needs more security.
For Apple, security is essential for its customers, not only to provide awareness and relief to customers but also to build their loyalty, and it’s beneficial for long-term investment.
Closing Words
In conclusion, Apple did not release any new apps. Apple just wants to implement Apple AI in iCloud and even iCloud itself was already released in 2011, which is entirely too old to be called a new app. But with dedication and hardwork from Apple, Apple makes iCloud look like a brand-new app with new fresh features and updates, especially Apple Ai (and it was also available for freebies).
