New report crowns unsung hero as Apple's most popular service

Apple has been growing its services business like crazy over the last few years. The company created so many services that it now offers a subscription bundle service to give customers some semblance of sense in subscribing to them all.

If you want to buy a service from Apple, you now have a lot of choice. You can choose Apple Music for music, Apple TV+ for movies and TV shows, Apple Arcade for video games, Apple News+ for magazines and newspapers, Apple Fitness+ for guided workouts, and iCloud for....storage?

Despite iCloud being the least exciting service that Apple offers as part of its Apple One subscription bundle, it appears that this unsung hero remains the company's most popular service with customers. In a new report from CIRP (Consumer Intelligence Research Partners), it appears that 64% of Apple customers pay for iCloud .

iCloud dominates when it comes to paid services

That's probably not what you were expecting! You would think that a service like Apple Music or Apple TV+ would take the cake when it comes to services, but good old iCloud is the most popular.

Apple Music does take second, however, with 42% of customers paying for the music streaming service. Apple Podcasts, even though Apple doesn't have Apple Podcasts+ yet, has 37% penetration with customers and comes in third. Apple TV+ comes in fourth with 32% and Apple News+ comes in fifth with 27%. CIRP did not have figures for Apple Arcade or Apple News+.

While it might seem boring to have iCloud top the charts when it comes to Apple's services business, it makes a lot of sense. iCloud isn't so much of an optional service but more a necessity. With all of the photos and videos that people take using their iPhones now, you need that iCloud storage to make sure you don't lose it if you break your iPhone.

So, enjoy your crown, iCloud.

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