“I think iTunes has morphed into a multimedia management nightmare — with a disjointed style and complicated menus that try to “organise” my media in ways I never wanted to,” Hayley Tsukayama writes for Financial Review. “But while the program occasionally makes me long for the days of my well-ordered CD collection, I have some newfound respect for its purpose and what it accomplishes for Apple.”
“After Apple’s earnings report last week, there’s little denying that, in iTunes, Apple has an amazing golden goose,” Tsukayama writes. “Apple reported that the ‘services’ sector – known to most people as ‘Things iTunes controls’ – made just under $US6 billion ($7.97 billion) in the last quarter and grew 19 percent from the same time last year. And services has made Apple a whopping $US23 billion so far this year… Netflix, made $US6.78 billion in revenue in all of 2015.”
MacDailyNews Take: Actually, “Services” includes revenue from Internet Services, AppleCare, Apple Pay, licensing and other services.
“Tim Cook has said that the company projects that its services sector will earn as much money as a Fortune 100 company by the end of 2017,” Tsukayama writes. “It used to be that Apple hooked you with the device and locked you in with the ecosystem. Now, the ecosystem has become a device selling point itself.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, it’s the ecosystem, stupid.
…“It used to be that Apple hooked you with the device and locked you in with the ecosystem. Now, the ecosystem has become a device selling point itself.”
I appreciate the enthusiasm about the significance of this, but I don’t think anyone out there is buying iPhones because they desperately want iTunes Store.
Am I reading that wrong or what? How is $7.97 billion “just under $US6 billion”? Isn’t that just under $8 billion?
That’s just the usual level of “attentive” quality reporting we get nowadays.
It’s an Australian article mate. Currency conversion to $AUD.
Imagine how much more it would be if iTunes hadn’t been turned into a user interface train wreck.
I avoid iTunes like the plague – if at all possible. Using older versions on older OS machines seems better somehow. Still missing Cover Flow – what’s up widdat? Tried subscription music – no likey (especially with the likes of the assholic Kanye & similar crowd) – back to downloads or ripping CD’s in Apple Lossless.