Three of the things Apple includes with a new device this autumn are free for a fixed period and then are not: three months of five services with any Apple device purchase, three months of Apple One with an iPhone Duo, and two years of satellite access with an Apple Watch Ultra 3 or later activation. Apple dates the start of each one and prices none of what follows.
That is a cost of ownership question rather than a launch-day one. A trial that lapses in December is a line in a January bill, and the pages Apple published for this lineup do not say what the line says.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Three months free | Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+ with an Apple device purchase |
| iPhone Duo | Three months of Apple One, per Apple’s announcement |
| Satellite on Ultra 4 | Free for two years with Ultra 3 or later activation, via Globalstar |
| Personal Setup | Free one-to-one online sessions with an Apple Specialist |
| AppleCare One | $19.99 a month, for up to three products, until cancelled |
| AppleCare One Family | $49.99 a month from September 14, six claims a year across the group |
| Renewal prices | Not stated on the launch pages |
The three-month clock
Apple’s store and its education store both advertise three months of select services free with an Apple device purchase, and name five: Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+. iPhone Duo is handled differently. Apple’s announcement gives Duo buyers three months of Apple One, which is the bundle rather than a choice of one service.
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The dates fall out of Apple’s own release schedule. Count three months from a September 18 purchase and you land on Friday, December 18, exactly 13 weeks later. Count three months from an October 23 iPhone Duo and you land on Saturday, January 23, 2027. Both of those are our arithmetic on the calendar, and Apple has not published whether the clock starts at purchase, at delivery or at activation, which can move either date by days.
| Inclusion | Free period | Ends, our arithmetic | Price after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Five services, iPhone 18 Pro bought September 18 | Three months | Friday, December 18, 2026 | Not on the launch pages |
| Apple One, iPhone Duo bought October 23 | Three months | Saturday, January 23, 2027 | Not on the launch pages |
| Satellite, Ultra 4 activated September 18 | Two years | September 2028 | Not published |
| Personal Setup | One session | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| AppleCare One | None | Does not lapse | $19.99 a month |
The two-year clock on satellite
Apple Watch Ultra 4 carries Emergency SOS, Messages and Find My via satellite, which Apple states is provided by Globalstar and its affiliates and is free for two years with an Ultra 3 or later activation. A watch activated on launch day therefore reaches the end of that window in September 2028.
Apple has published nothing about year three: no price, no renewal mechanism, and no statement that the features stop. This is the longest of the free periods and the one with the least published about what happens at the end of it.
The one-year question the new pages do not answer
There is a third clock that buyers assume rather than read. The only warranty length we can quote from an Apple page in this material is on the Certified Refurbished pages, which describe a standard one-year limited warranty on refurbished hardware. The September 2026 product pages we read state no warranty length at all.
That absence matters because the second year is where repairs start being charged, and Apple has published no repair price, battery service price or claim service fee for iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone Duo, AirPods 5, Apple Watch Series 12 or Apple Watch Ultra 4. Nor has it published a per-device AppleCare+ price for any of them.
The subscription that does not expire
AppleCare One is the mirror image of everything above: not a free period but a charge that continues until you stop it. It is $19.99 a month for up to three products, plus $5.99 a month for each product beyond three. AppleCare One Family is $49.99 a month from Monday, September 14, covering up to six people set up through Family Sharing, with six total claims a year across the group.
Over three years, $19.99 a month is $719.64 and $49.99 a month is $1,799.64 on our arithmetic. The family plan adds newly purchased devices automatically at no extra cost and keeps the same price however many eligible products end up covered, and it limits eligibility to most devices less than four years old and in good working condition.
What Apple has not said
Apple has not published when the three-month clock starts, what any of the five services or Apple One cost once it stops, whether the offer is per person or per household, what satellite access costs after two years, a warranty length on the new product pages, a per-device AppleCare+ price, or any repair pricing. Every date and total here is our arithmetic on Apple’s published figures and dates.
iOS 27 and AppleCare One Family both arrive on Monday, September 14. iPhone 18 Pro, AirPods 5 and the new Apple Watches reach stores on Friday, September 18, and iPhone Duo follows with pre-orders on October 16 and sales on October 23, which is when its own three-month clock starts.
