Apple raises price of Apple TV+ to $9.99 a month
Apple on Wednesday raised the prices for a number of its flagship services offerings, including Apple TV+, Arcade, and its bundled offering, Apple One. The move follows prior price hikes in October 2022.
Apple TV+ will now cost $9.99 a month, up from $6.99. The price increase comes after Apple upped the price in 2022 from $4.99. The annual package will now cost $99, up from $69.
Apple One, the bundle package used by many families to access Apple’s services at a lower price will also increase, with the top end Premier package now costing $37.95 a month.
Apple’s Arcade and News+ monthly prices are also increasing, to $6.99 and $12.99 respectively.
All these products form a part of Apple’s services business. The segment generated $21.21 billion in revenue during Apple’s fiscal third quarter, making it Apple’s second largest business behind the iPhone, which generated $39.76 billion during the same time period.
The business is extremely profitable, and important for investors because it signals how Apple is monetizing its active base of 2 billion devices by selling them subscriptions, streaming TV, warranties, advertising, payment services, and other products included in the category.
The price increases mirror those made by other major media players, including Disney and Netflix.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when the changes would roll out to existing customers.
CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this report.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
Technology
Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup’s robots could ‘fracture a human skull’
Startup Figure AI is developing general-purpose humanoid robots.
Figure AI
Figure AI, an Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots, was sued by the startup’s former head of product safety who alleged that he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company’s robots “were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.”
Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, is the plaintiff in the suit filed Friday in a federal court in the Northern District of California. Gruendel’s attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his “most direct and documented safety complaints.”
The suit lands two months after Figure was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. That’s a 15-fold increase in valuation from early 2024, when the company raised a round from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft.
In the complaint, Gruendel’s lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot’s lethal capabilities, and said one “had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.”
The complaint also says Gruendel warned company leaders not to “downgrade” a “safety road map” that he had been asked to present to two prospective investors who ended up funding the company.
Gruendel worried that a “product safety plan which contributed to their decision to invest” had been “gutted” the same month Figure closed the investment round, a move that “could be interpreted as fraudulent,” the suit says.
The plaintiff’s concerns were “treated as obstacles, not obligations,” and the company cited a “vague ‘change in business direction’ as the pretext” for his termination, according to the suit.
Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory and punitive damages and demanding a jury trial.
Figure didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did attorneys for Gruendel.
The humanoid robot market remains nascent today, with companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics pursuing futuristic offerings, alongside Figure, while China’s Unitree Robotics is preparing for an IPO. Morgan Stanley said in a report in May that adoption is “likely to accelerate in the 2030s” and could top $5 trillion by 2050.
Read the filing here:
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