Let’s say you subscribe to a weather app called “Bright Sky.” The creator of Bright Sky is releasing a new travel app called “Luggage” and wants to offer a deal. “All Bright Sky subscribers can subscribe to Luggage at the discounted rate of $4.99 (normally $6.99)!”
This sort of thing hasn’t been possible with subscriptions through the App Store, but it will be soon. Apple just announced a new contingent pricing feature for App Store developers that allows them to charge a reduced subscription rate as long as the user already has another specific subscription from the same developer or a other. Here’s Apple’s explanation of how it works:
Conditional pricing can be used for subscriptions from one developer or two different developers. For example, you can offer premium Ocean Journal subscribers the opportunity to subscribe to Mountain Climber for a discounted price of $4.99/month instead of the usual $5.99/month. Customers pay the discounted price as long as they remain subscribed to Ocean Journal.
Customers can experience these price reductions within your app, in off-platform marketing channels, and in scheduled placements on the App Store. Apple helps you manage the implementation, providing customers with a seamless exchange and purchasing experience based on the conditional price proposal you provide.
The feature is expected to be available to developers in January, so it will likely be part of iOS 17.3 (and other related OS updates). A recent Wall Street Journal article indicated that Apple was in discussions to offer an Apple TV+ bundle with Paramount+, which could be the reason for the change. One could imagine this feature being used for such a thing: instead of offering a new subscription to access both, companies could offer a discount on Paramount+ to Apple TV+ subscribers or vice versa.
