“Last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced a new direction for his company,” Ian Sherr reports for CNET.
“Apple TV Plus, a video streaming service; Apple Arcade, a paid package of games; and Apple News Plus, a subscription service to articles from about 300 magazines and newspapers — they’re the future of Apple’s growth. The company’s even creating Apple Card, a credit card, with cash back for people who buy products directly from the company.”
MacDailyNews Note: Apple Card offers cash back even when you do not buy “products directly from the company.”
The facts:
• Get 3% back on everything you buy from Apple, whether you buy it at an Apple Store, apple.com, the App Store, or iTunes. That includes games, in‑app purchases, and services like your Apple Music subscription and iCloud storage plan.
• Get 2% back every time you buy something using Apple Pay. That’s in every category, with no limits. Imagine all the things you use a credit card for every day — at Target, Walgreens, Lyft. You’ll get 2% back on just about everything.
• If you happen to come across a store, website, or app that doesn’t take Apple Pay yet, Apple Card still gives you 1% of your purchases back in the form of Daily Cash.
“‘For decades, Apple’s been creating world-class hardware and world-class software,’ Cook said,” Sherr reports. “Now it’s going to tackle streaming and gaming services too. ‘It’s unlike anything that’s been done before.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s hardware + software + services truly is “unlike anything that’s been done before.” No other company can offer what Apple can so comprehensively and at such a high level of quality.
Most analysts claim Apple is already late to the party and that they won’t be able to pull subscribers from competing companies. In other words, Apple is doomed. They say everything Apple does has already been done before by some other company. I would think Services revenue for Apple would be like icing on a cake providing Apple’s hardware sales stay somewhat strong. I don’t really know if Apple’s iPhone business is truly ruined by Chinese Android smartphones but it looks that way. Apple is going to have to perform some serious magic on the next iPhone and also keep the prices in check.
As a long-term shareholder, I’m always hoping for Apple to pull off some miracle, but I’m sure that will be very difficult with so much global hardware competition. Apple will simply have to keep diversifying its business to have multiple strong revenue streams even if the naysayers don’t agree.
Numerous people have posted variations of this every year for the last umpteen years.
Hey Sean,
Truth be told people have been talking about this since the 80’s.
Qube System, Teledon, Atari and others have always had this vision.
The hardware and communication capabilities are finally catching up with the vision.
Timmy your focus is lacking.