Apple announced on their site today in a blog post that they had a great start to the New Year saying their services business is doing great. I would like to point out somethings while I am a huge Apple fan the information they shared is a little veg at times buts it’s still very interesting to say the least.
App Store
“App Store customers spent a record $1.42 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, a 16 percent increase over last year, and $386 million on New Year’s Day 2020 alone, a 20 percent increase over last year and a new single-day record.”
This is an amazing number and one of the main reasons Apple does not want to open their phones up to third party app markets or give up control over what can be installed on their devices. While yes I know part of it is security but this is a huge amount of money for Apple to risk losing.
Apple Music
Apple has provided no growth claims or hard numbers for the Apple Music service in a while but I am sure they have made back their 3.5 billion dollar investment in buying Beats.
Apple TV
“Apple TV+ made history as the first streaming platform to receive multiple Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations in its launch year, and is the first and only streaming service to debut instantly in over 100 countries and regions.”
I will say this the shows are good I enjoyed them and the service is priced right and getting a nomination is nothing short of awesome for Apple. Since Apple owns all the content and has the weight of the company behind them they are able to do things other services that don’t own the content cannot due and offering free AppleTV for a year with the purchase of a new device will help accelerate the adoption and growth of the service.
Apple Arcade
“Apple Arcade is a groundbreaking game subscription service within the App Store, offering users unlimited access to the entire catalog of 100+ new, exclusive games, all playable across iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and Apple TV. Apple Arcade”
I am not a big gamer if at all I really have nothing to say I have never used the service and I don’t know anyone using it.
Apple News
“Apple News draws over 100 million monthly active users in the US, UK, Australia and Canada and has revolutionized how users access news from all their favorite sources. Apple News+ offers an all-in-one subscription to hundreds of the world’s top magazines and major newspapers. In 2020, Apple News will provide live coverage of key moments in the US presidential election in partnership with ABC News.”
I am actually really impressed and shocked by the 100 million monthly active users that user Apple News monthly. This is a great number showing how well people are informed are by reading. My only nitpick here is Apple News+. While everyone gets the Apple News App free I am curious how many people are reading the magazines and News+ content for $9.99 a month. No number was released I wonder if Apple has made any money back from their large purchase of Texture which is the company they bought out to do this product.
Apple Podcasts
“Apple Podcasts offers free audio stories that entertain, inform and inspire, and now delivers listeners over 800,000 shows in 155 countries on more devices than ever before. Listeners can search topics and people within the audio to find new shows and episodes.”
While this is a market Apple created with the iPod they have never really capitalized on it ever none are exclusive to Apple. I think Apples next service might be a Podcast+ app where you get exclusive Apple only podcasts. Many great podcasts have gone behind a paywall due to the lack of sponsor clicks or have gone freemium. I am curious to see what if anything Apple will do with this market.
Apple Card and Apple Pay
Apple expanded its Pay service with a new credit card last year and has really been hyping this up its basically a credit card with an Apple Logo and a cool App. Many places like Walmart and Amazon still do not take Apple Pay I wish they would work on this more going forward.
Apple iCloud
“Over 75 percent of iCloud users are protected with two-factor authentication, an extra layer of security designed to ensure that no one else can access their account or data. With Family Sharing, up to six family members can share access to Apple services, including Apple TV+, Apple News+, Apple Arcade, Apple Music and an iCloud storage plan, as well as individual music, movie, TV, book and app purchases.“
I personally pay 99 cents a month for iCloud storage to back up my phone and I love the sharing of the services between my family’s devices. I really like iCloud Apple gets a thumbs up for me on this.