Douglas A. McIntyre, 24/7 Wall St.:
The Dow Jones industrial average is up 20.61% this year to a near-record level of 28,135.38. It would not have a chance to be there if one of its 30 components, Apple Inc., was not up by 74.43% to $275.15. No stock in the Dow has gained nearly as much.
Apple’s stock increase has ridden the back of two developments for most of the year. The new iPhone 11 has done better than expected, although the numbers are speculation by experts and not data provided by Apple. The other is that Apple’s bet on “services” as an alternative to difficult hardware sales has produced good results. Its services business numbers crushed expectations for the latest quarter…
Apple’s bet on TV is absolutely critical. At $4.99 for the first month, after a seven-day free trial, the service is aggressively priced compared to industry leaders Amazon and Netflix… Apple’s management has gambled that, although its library of content is limited compared to the leaders, the low price, the Apple brand and the hundreds of millions of iPhones, iPads and Macs in the world are a huge base to which it can market its streaming service.
MacDailyNews Take: Onward and upward!
Apple TV+ will be a massive success and, at $4.99/month, if Apple just leaves the price alone for three years, the company will have 100+ million paying subscribers with 36 months from launch. — MacDailyNews, October 23, 2019