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Is Apple News+ the New iTunes?

Posted on April 2, 2019 by admin Posted in Business Leave a comment

What it is: Within the first 48 hours of its release, Apple News+ attracted 200,000 subscribers.

Back when DVD and tape cassette sales were falling and people were stealing MP3 files of their favorite songs, Apple helped save the music industry with iTunes, a legal music download service that eliminated the hassle of finding the song you wanted. Without iTunes, the music industry was flailing to make a profit in the new world of audio file downloads.

Now the newspaper and magazine business is in equally dire straits. With advertising revenue plummeting, newspapers and magazines can’t survive on subscriber revenue alone. That means the newspaper and magazine industry is slowly dying and needs a new way to attract new subscribers.

That’s what makes Apple News+ interesting. For a monthly price of $9.99, you get an all you can read option of several hundred newspapers and magazines. For people who enjoy reading magazines and newspapers, Apple News+ will save them plenty of money. However, can Apple News+ save the newspaper and magazine industry by attracting more subscribers?

Both the Washington Post and The New York Times refused to join Apple News+ because they already offer a monthly subscription service to their content, so joining Apple News+ would mean competing against their own subscription service. The question is whether both newspapers can attract enough subscribers on their own.

For smaller magazines, Apple News+ offers a wider audience. For larger newspapers like The New York times, Apple News+ isn’t proven. As long as The New York Times and The Washington Post can continue attracting subscribers to their own online service, there’s no incentive to join Apple News+. The moment Apple News+ proves they can attract more readers and revenue than either newspaper’s individual online service can offer, that’s the time they’ll switch to Apple News+.

The Washington Post and The New York Times have nothing to lose by taking a wait and see approach. Expect more niche publications to join Apple News+ as the magazine industry continues to flounder. Apple News+ could become the next iTunes in saving an entire industry that’s slowly floundering. We all know the magazine and newspaper market won’t suddenly skyrocket any time soon. We just don’t know if Apple News+ will be the one that saves this industry from itself.

Apple’s Services are the New iPhone

Posted on March 29, 2019 by admin Posted in Business, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Apple introduced services at its latest event that will provide income beyond the iPhone.

For the longest time, Apple was dependent on the Macintosh. The company tried to branch out into TV sets, game consoles, and personal digital assistants, but failed. Then Apple got another hit on their hands when they introduced the iPod.

The iPod carried the company forward and then iTunes came along to support the iPod and also sell music downloads. The combination of the iPod and iTunes made Apple dependent on that product instead of the Macintosh.

Then Apple introduced the iPhone, which effectively killed the iPod. You can still buy an iPod, but for the most part, it’s a dead product because most people have a music player in their smartphone. Now Apple is branching out from the iPhone to services.

Services provide a steady, ongoing revenue stream, but the key is that services need to solve a specific problem, just like technology needs to solve a specific problem.

People rapidly adopted the iPhone because it was a far better solution than previous smartphones from Nokia and Blackberry or Windows Mobile. People are still adopting the Macintosh as an easier alternative to Windows. So with so many services introduced, what problems do they solve?

Apple News+ is the only service currently available and basically gives you access to hundreds of magazines and newspapers. Basically the only problem it solves is that it gives people access to more magazines than subscribing to them individually, but that’s only if Apple News+ offers the specific magazines you want to read. Otherwise Apple News+ simply gives you access to magazines you don’t care about anyways.

For some people, Apple News+ will be useful but for many more, it will not. That doesn’t mean Apple News+ will flop, but that it’s not necessarily a major product like the iPod, iTunes, or the iPhone.

Apple Arcade is far more interesting because more people like games than like reading multiple magazines. By giving you access to multiple games at a fixed price (yet to be determined), you can enjoy games that you might not have considered buying otherwise.

This gives game developers an incentive to offer unique games beyond the usual first-person shoot ’em up game mechanics while also giving subscribers a safe way to explore other types of games.

Apple Arcade may be better than Apple News+, but games alone won’t make Apple a bundle of money.

Apple TV+ is the riskiest of all services because it doesn’t matter how many A-list actors or directors you throw on a project. That project can still fail. Apple TV+ will simply provide people with another source for original content, but whether it’s worth paying for or not will depend on the content and the cost.

Despite being the riskiest service, Apple TV+ does offer potentially large profits to rival Netflix or Hulu. Expect Hulu to whither away and Netflix to merge with someone eventually to stay alive.

Perhaps the service with the greatest potential is Apple Card, which eliminates fees and gives instant cash back rewards. Just eliminating fees alone is a big deal but offering clear account statements along with financial tracking features gives Apple Card a huge advantage over all existing credit cards.

Making the Apple Card more secure is just another advantage and offering people a titanium, laser-etched credit card with no number or signature further enhances security.

Since everyone needs a credit card, Apple Card is likely the most promising service of all. A large majority of iPhone users will get an Apple Card and Apple will make money off purchases. Such a steady stream of income will likely dwarf anything Apple News+, Apple TV+, or Apple Arcade can ever earn.

Apple Card is the big success of all of Apple’s services followed by Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, and Apple News+. Services are the future and with Apple Music already entrenched, services will simply allow Apple to grow beyond their hardware roots and thrive by customizing their future hardware to support their services.

Apple Acquires Digital Magazine Subscription Service

Posted on March 12, 2018 by admin Posted in Business Leave a comment

What it is: Apple acquired Texture, a digital magazine subscription service.

Texture is a digital magazine subscription service that costs $9.99 a month but gives you access to over 200 different magazines. Bye subscribing to Texture, you can read magazine articles and save them to read later on your device. Now Apple has announced they’re acquiring Texture to incorporate into their Apple News service.

The eventual goal is to provide a variety of news sources to people so they can access information form different sources. Of course, that assumes that people want to access information from different sources. In most cases, people simply gravitate towards the news they like best that supports their point of view, and avoid any news that contradicts or threatens their point of view.

Still the idea is sound. By adding Texture to Apple News, readers will be able to access information in both newspapers, news sites, and magazines. Apple is simply trying to become a one-stop shopping place for news lovers of all kind, although why anyone would think magazines like People would constitute news is questionable.

Still, Texture includes access to Bloomberg, Wired, and National Geographic among other magazines, so you can be certain of finding something useful, educational, and interesting. Now the real trick is to get people to think one what they read rather than simply parrot what others have said. If Apple can succeed in getting people to think for themselves, that will be a miracle. Most likely, Apple News will be able to give people access to information, but it will be up to them to actually use that information intelligently.

Let’s hope people will be up for the challenge instead of staying locked in their own echo chamber of reading news that only buttresses their own ideas and beliefs.