According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple plans to upgrade Apple Fitness+ and Apple Pay this year, and has considered providing a brand-new grocery service that connects with the Health app. Gurman discussed his predictions for new Apple services this year in the most recent edition of his Power On newsletter. Two finance-related Apple services are said to be in the works, including a hardware subscription program and a "buy now, pay later" option for Apple Pay transactions, which would allow users to pay for Apple Pay purchases in increments over time, similar to Klarna.
Gurman revealed last month that the hardware subscription scheme will allow clients to pay a monthly charge and have access to an iPhone, iPad, or Mac for the duration of the subscription. Apple is claimed to want to bring purchasing an iPhone or an iPad "on par" with purchasing iCloud storage or an Apple Music subscription, with users able to subscribe to hardware using their Apple ID and App Store account.
While Apple has been working on hardware subscriptions for months, it was supposedly put aside to focus on the "buy now, pay later" Apple Pay service. According to Gurman, Apple is trying to incorporate hardware subscriptions by the end of 2022, although this might be pushed out to 2023 or canceled completely.
Furthermore, Apple is said to be adding additional workout styles to Apple Fitness+ with iOS 16 later this year. Furthermore, it is said that Apple has considered launching a "Instacart-like service that interacts with dietary data in the Health app." Gurman commented that the service appears to be "very low-margin" and perhaps complicated to deploy. He also stated that he is also hoping for substantial upgrades to Apple TV+ this year.
