Apple may launch a new audiobook service this year, and it makes sense

It seems that Apple now has plans to spin off its audiobooks into a subscription service. While there is no official confirmation on this from Apple, it is being rumoured that the company might have plans to introduce its audiobook subscription by the end of 2022.

"In the past couple of years, Apple has made smaller media bets including Arcade, a subscription gaming package, News+, a publishing bundle, and Fitness+, which offers video aerobics classes. There is talk of an audiobooks service later this year," a report by The Economist said.

This does make sense as the company might have plans to offer this into an Apple One subscription to offer better value to its customers. In 2019, Apple switched gears and started focusing on providing external services like Apple TV+ to give major video streaming platforms tough competition. Later, the brand expanded its services and added other subscription-based services.

People now only need to buy the Apple One monthly subscription, which is a bundle combining services like Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, iCloud, and Apple Arcade. There are chances that the brand may now also include its audiobooks as a subscription service to make it easier for users to access these at an affordable price rather than paying for each of them individually.

If this turns out to be true, then Apple will be seen competing with Amazon's Audible, which is already one of the established players in this space. The Cupertino giant is currently offering audiobooks in its Apple Books app. While one will find a lot of selections similar to Audible in terms of popular titles, Amazon's online audiobook and podcast platform have more original and better content preferences.

There are chances that Apple might not directly launch its audiobooks service and follow Spotify's footsteps. The company could include audiobooks in its music streaming service in a separate section. While nothing is confirmed yet, users are advised to take this with a pinch of salt. The cited source doesn't reveal any details and predicts that we may see the audiobooks service later this year.