Anthropic's $200/month Claude Code subscription offers significantly cheaper usage than pay-as-you-go API plans, leading to workarounds like OpenCode CLI to avoid restrictions. The company prefers users to utilize their proprietary CLI to maintain control and gather data, though there are calls for them to open source it. The pricing strategy appears aimed at building ecosystem lock-in and long-term user engagement, despite criticisms of the approach and the potential for better open-source alternatives.
Apple TV+ has increased its subscription price to $12.99/month, which may lead to the launch of an ad-supported tier around $6.99/month, similar to strategies used by competitors like Disney+. This move could diversify revenue streams and attract more budget-conscious consumers.
Max, formerly HBO Max, plans to crack down on password sharing, with initial messaging starting soon and stricter rules by 2025-2026. Warner Bros. Discovery aims to charge multi-household users more and may increase subscription prices. This follows Netflix's successful crackdown on password sharing, which boosted its subscriber numbers. Max currently has 110.5 million subscribers, with plans ranging from $9.99 to $20.99 per month.
Adobe has released an artificial intelligence assistant to help users understand digital documents, with monthly subscriptions starting at $4.99. The tool, available in beta for mobile and as extensions on Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, uses a chatbot interface to locate specific information, generate summaries, and provide citations drawn from the text. Adobe plans to expand the assistant's ability to support users working with multiple documents at once.
Microsoft has revealed the pricing for extended security updates on Windows 10, which will be necessary for users running the OS beyond October 2025. The pricing starts at $61 per device for the first year and doubles every year for three years, with individual users and businesses able to join the extended support program. This move is likely to encourage users to upgrade to Windows 11, which is still in full support and receiving free security updates.
Amazon Prime Video will introduce advertisements during shows and movies starting in early 2024, offering two tiers of subscriptions. The price of Prime membership will remain the same with ads, but an additional $2.99 per month will be required for ad-free content. The company aims to have "meaningfully fewer ads" than other streaming TV providers and plans to roll out the tiers in several countries. This move follows a trend among streaming services to implement ad-tier systems to balance subscription costs and content quality.
Peloton plans to relaunch its brand and focus more on fitness content rather than hardware, with the introduction of "app tiers" and a tiered membership structure. The company aims to engage new categories of customers and become a meaningful contributor of revenue for its business. Peloton will still continue to focus on hardware propagation, with the Peloton Bike+ and its sibling hardware being shown off in commercial settings. The company has also seen success selling refurbished bikes and promoting its bike leasing program.
