Services

Apple’s Services business alone is worth more than most countries

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Tim Cook is keeping quiet about Apple TV+ subscriber numbers for now.
Services are still killing it.
Photo: Apple

Tim Cook’s mission to make Apple’s Services business a behemoth all by itself is paying off in a big way. The latest Wall Street estimate pegs its total value at a whopping $1.5 trillion — more than a third of Apple’s total market cap.

To put that figure into perspective, it’s more than the national net worth of most countries — including Ukraine, Hungary, Peru and Qatar combined.

Customers spend $540 million in the App Store on New Year’s Day

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Apple services
Services are big business for Apple.
Photo: Apple

Apple customers spent a record $540 million-plus in a single day on digital goods and services on New Year’s Day, Apple said Wednesday.

This followed a monster holiday season in which App Store customers splurged $1.8 billion in the App Store between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Users spent much of this astonishing amount of money on games.

Apple One is the Prime-style bundle that will lock us into Apple services

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Amazon Prime video
Can Apple follow the Amazon Prime formula?
Photo: Morning Brew/Unsplash CC

Apple One, which bundles several of the company’s vaunted services together, is a genius move. At best, it saves you money. At worst, it looks like it does.

I think it’s going to be a massive hit for Apple, and will provide a much-needed boost for struggling services like Apple News+ and Apple Arcade. However, it might cause some big headaches in Cupertino, too.

Apple explores new ways to promote its services

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Apple services are important to the company’s future profits.
Apple.com was all about Apple TV+ on Friday. It’s all part of advertising this company’s services.
Screenshot: Apple/Cult of Mac

Apple TV+ took over the Apple.com home page on Friday. And the company also released a lengthy video about a game recently added to Apple Arcade. These Apple services are seen as increasingly important to its bottom line. And the company is using new ways to advertise them.

From Apple TV+ to Apple Arcade, Cupertino’s new services fail to bring in big money

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Share Apple TV+
Apple services may not be bringing in the cash, Bloomberg says.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

As Apple’s services division grows in importance, the company’s newest services — Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and Apple Card — are failing to bring in significant revenue, according to a new report.

Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman writes that, while services likely will increase yet again when Apple announces its Q3 earnings this week, most of these gains will come from older services like the App Store.

Services could help make Apple a $2 trillion company by 2024

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money
Suddenly that $1 trillion valuation looks pretty paltry.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple was the first public company in history to reach a $700 billion, $800 billion, $900 billion, and $1 trillion valuation. Could it also be the first company to hit the vaunted $2 trillion mark? And, if so, when will this happen?

In a research note to clients, Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani argues that not only can Apple get to this mark, it can do so over the next four years. That would be just six years after it hit $1 trillion for the first time. Today, Apple is worth around $1.3 trillion.

Apple rolls out App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, more in 20+ new countries

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International App Store
Apple's focusing on growing its services business more than ever.
Photo: Apple

Apple announced Tuesday that it is launching a whole host of its services in dozens more countries around the world.

Starting today, the App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Podcasts, and iCloud are available in 20 additional countries. Apple Music, meanwhile, has picked up an additional 52 (!) international markets.

Samsung wants to follow Apple in building a giant services business

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Samsung wants to follow Apple in building a giant services business
Samsung wants to build a $50 billion-a-year services business. Who doesn't?
Photo: Mathieu Turle/Unsplash CC

Samsung wants to copy Apple’s success in services by establishing a $50 billion-a-year services business. This would help the company make up for falling smartphone sales with subscription sales.

Having invested heavily in software over the past four years, a senior Samsung executive said the company is working to turn this into, “meaningful customer experiences.”

Apple ad revenue could hit $11 billion a year by 2025

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AppleTV+
How are Apple Originals looking on your TV?
Photo: Roku

The money Apple earns from advertising could rise to a whopping $11 billion a year by 2025, one analyst says.

Cupertino currently rakes in around $2 billion a year from ad revenue. The recent launch of Apple TV+ provides an opportunity for that to skyrocket over the next six years.

But will Apple really take advantage of it?

Apple sets new Q4 record with $64 billion in revenue

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European Commission could get even tougher on tech in 2020
European Commission could get even tougher on tech in 2020
Image: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple earnings report for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2019 met the most bullish of Wall Street expectations this afternoon with a Q4 record high of $64 billion in revenue and $3.03 earnings per share.

Apple’s stock price started soaring in after-hours trading on news of the positive earnings. With the iPhone 11 on sale for just 10 days during Q4, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave credit to Apple’s booming service business and the Apple Watch and AirPods for pushing the quarter to record heights.

Everything you need to know before Apple’s last earnings call of 2019

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Earnings call
Get ready for another record breaking quarter.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple is ready to unveil its last earnings report of 2019 this week, and investors are anxiously waiting to hear some good news on iPhone sales.

All early indications point to sales of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro performing even better than expected. But because the new devices were only on sale for the very tail end of the quarter, they might not have given Apple the growth Wall Street is desperate to see.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri are set to divulge all the details for Apple’s fiscal Q4 2019 earnings on Wednesday, October 30, at 2 p.m. PDT. Per usual, Cult of Mac will be analyzing all the data right when it drops and there are a couple of areas and metrics that are key to keeping Apple’s stock price soaring.

Analyst isn’t convinced that Apple’s got a promising future in services

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Samsung wants to follow Apple in building a giant services business
Services is an incredibly competitive area.
Photo: Mathieu Turle/Unsplash CC

Plenty of folks are buzzing over Apple’s shift to services. From Apple Arcade to iCloud to Apple TV+, Apple’s got a new lucrative business stream which could pick up some of the slack from falling hardware sales.

Keybanc analyst Andy Hargreaves isn’t convinced, however. In fact, he points out that not only are services a competitive market (which everyone knows), but that Apple may actually be headed in the wrong direction.

Services fuel Apple to historic June quarter

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European Commission could get even tougher on tech in 2020
Apple shares are trading up on the good news.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Record-breaking revenue put Apple right in line with Wall Street expectations as the company released its Q3 2019 earnings report today.

The iPhone-maker brought in $53.8 billion in revenue, a number within range of its own guidance and most analysts’ predictions. That set a new record for Apple third-quarter revenue — a slight gain from Q3 2018’s $53.3 billion. CEO Tim Cook touted the company’s subscription offerings for fueling the new all-time high.

Jony Ive is leaving Apple at a time it’s pivoting to Services

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Apple services
Services is based on software, not hardware.
Photo: Apple

There’s a plenty of court intrigue about the reasons for Jony Ive leaving Apple.

John Arlidge, who interviewed Ive for the U.K.’s Sunday Times in 2013 and 2014, has an interesting take. In an article for Wired, Arlidge points out that Ive’s split from Apple comes at a time when it’s pivoting away from hardware.

Big changes might come to struggling Apple News+

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Apple News
Apple News+ revenues fail to impress publishers.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple is already having to consider some major changes to its new Apple News+ service just three months after it launched earlier this year.

The subscription news service was supposed to be a boon for publishers and bring in a ton of extra cash, but a new report claims most publishers are only seeing a fraction of the revenue Apple promised.

What we learned from Apple’s surprising earnings report

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European Commission could get even tougher on tech in 2020
European Commission could get even tougher on tech in 2020
Image: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Wall Street received surprisingly better-than-expected news from Apple’s Q2 2019 earnings report today — and the stock is soaring in after-hours trading.

iPhone sales remain down, but pretty much every other facet of the company’s business is firing on all cylinders. Customers are falling in love with the iPad all over again. Services are booming. And Apple’s wearables business is now the size of a Fortune 200 company.

Despite plenty of doom and gloom from analysts over the last 12 months, Apple’s future is looking bright again.

Apple’s newest services lack ‘depth,’ analysts warn

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Apple TV+ could have 26 million paying subs by 2025; 2.6 million currently
Apple TV+ could have 26 million paying subs by 2025; 2.6 million currently
Photo: Apple

Apple’s newest services don’t deliver the “depth” investors want to see as iPhone sales fall for the Cupertino company.

Some analysts are particularly disappointed with the upcoming Apple TV+ video streaming service. They don’t believe Apple has any hope of competing with Netflix.

Apple video service might force Disney CEO out of board seat

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Bob Iger
Disney Chairman and CEO, Robert A. Iger.
Photo: (Disney/ABC/ Heidi Gutman)

Disney CEO Bob Iger’s seat on Apple’s board of directors might be at risk as both companies pursue video streaming services.

Apple hasn’t asked Iger to step down yet, but a new report shines light on what could soon become a very conflicted relationship. Disney and Apple have enjoyed close ties ever since Disney bought Pixar from Steve Jobs. Now it looks like the two companies are about to become close rivals.