May 9, 2005: Apple quietly begins selling music videos in the iTunes Music Store.
The feature arrives with iTunes 4.8, initially offering bonus content for people purchasing albums through the store. It will take several months for Apple to start selling individual music videos, along with Pixar short films and a selection of TV shows, for $1.99 a pop.
May 2, 1995: Apple enters the wearables space with its first watch, a timepiece with no fitness-tracking tech, no on-screen notifications and a whole lot of 1990s styling.
The (real) first Apple watch comes two decades before wearables will become a thing. A regular wristwatch, the freebie gadget is available as a special mail-in offer to System 7.5 upgraders.
May 1, 2008: The iTunes Store takes a gigantic step toward cinematic relevancy, selling new movies on the day of their DVD releases for the very first time.
“We’re thrilled to bring iTunes Store customers new films for purchase day-and-date with the DVD release,” says Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, in a press release. “We think movie fans will love being able to buy their favorites from major and independent studios.”
Movies out that week include Cloverfield, Juno, Alvin and the Chipmunks and American Gangster.
Apple did it again. It just announced a quarter where it didn’t just beat everyone’s expectations, it blew them away. The Mac had a phenomenal quarter, and so did iPhone and iPad.
But you don’t have to bury yourself in spreadsheets to get the lowdown on what it all means. Just read on.
April 22, 2013: The world gets its first Apple car. Well, kind of.
In reality, the iBeetle is a collaboration with German automaker Volkswagen that offers a car “stylistically linked” to Apple. This means Apple-inspired colors, a built-in docking station for your iPhone, and a special app that lets you control the car’s features.
Apple is ramping up the advertising side of its App Store business, according to the Financial Times.
The company currently sells App Store ads, allowing developers to pay for top spots. But soon Apple will roll out another advertising spot for sale in the “Suggested” apps section. This will allow developers to more widely promote their apps, rather than having them show up only in response to certain search terms.
Is Apple finally getting serious about podcasting? With a premium podcast service reportedly in the works, and several exclusive shows already online, it looks like Apple might be ready to defend its turf when it comes to the increasingly popular medium.
It’s about time. The company that was so strongly identified with podcasts from the start is rapidly losing its dominance as competitors come on strong. Here’s how Apple could regain its podcasting edge.
Apple could debut a premium podcast service at Tuesday’s “Spring Loaded” event, according to Recode reporter Peter Kafka.
“Pretty sure Apple is prepping its own podcast plan – a paid subscription service – on Tuesday,” Kafka tweeted Sunday.
No additional details are known about the possible podcast initiative, which presumably would join paid subscription services Apple News+, Apple Music, Apple TV+ and Apple Fitness+. The possibility of a paid podcasting service from Apple was rumored earlier this year.
Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a bill Monday that would ban mergers and acquisitions by companies with market caps in excess of $100 billion. If passed, the bill could have a massive impact on technology companies, including Apple.
Apple, for the record, currently has a market cap of $2.2 trillion. Other tech giants worth upward of $100 billion include Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook, Uber, Airbnb and Netflix.
Apple Music TV, the 24-hour streaming music video channel that serves as Apple’s version of classic MTV, is now available outside the United States.
Apple launched the free music video channel stateside last October. Jump forward six months, and it can now be viewed by people in Canada and the United Kingdom. While that represents only a small fraction of the places Apple does business in, it suggests that the company is keen to roll out this service further afield.
