Apple Hits 1 Billion Paid Subscriptions (axios.com) 27
Apple now has more than 1 billion paid subscriptions across all of its services, including Apple Music, iCloud, Apple News, Apple TV+ and more. From a report: Apple has methodically executed a long-term strategy of offsetting slowing hardware sales growth with revenue from software services -- and that now accounts for more than a quarter of the company's sales. Apple's advertising business is expected to reach $6 billion by 2025, which would make it larger than both Snapchat and Twitter's ad business. [...] The quarter also represented Apple's biggest ever for software sales.
Odd that the stock is down today (Score:2)
Yes, they sold fewer gadgets but the services business is way up. I would venture to say that services are far more profitable for Apple than selling iPhones and iPads, etc. The hardware margin is very good also but services is close to pure profit and it comes in on a recurring monthly basis.
Could be a good time to buy before the market comes to its senses.
Re: Odd that the stock is down today (Score:2)
Aren't most of those services tied to one of those gadgets, though? If your addressable install base shrinks, your growth is limited.
Re: Odd that the stock is down today (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Yes - the gadget is the delivery mechanism. Most people that want an iPhone already have one. A lot of people are using the services on 2-3 year old phones, which are still working perfectly fine.
Sure, it's great for Apple when someone buys a new iPhone but that is a one time purchase, not to be repeated for several years. Meanwhile, the service revenue comes in month after month regardless of how old or new the phone is.
Re: Odd that the stock is down today (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
>Aren't most of those services tied to one of those gadgets, though? If your addressable install base shrinks, your growth is limited.
Long-term, yes. Short-term it keeps money flowing even people decide to delay an upgrade.
Re:Odd that the stock is down today (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple forces you to use iCloud on iOS as far as I can see. You can install other cloud apps, but they don't work properly because iOS kills them off while trying to upload in the background. You have to keep them open to sync, which largely defeats the purpose of having them for backups.
Re: Odd that the stock is down today (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
No worse than people giving money to a "billionaire" so he can pay the legal fees he's racking up.
Walled Garden Hyprocricy (Score:4, Interesting)
I can hardly wait to subscribe to Mac OS on whatever hardware/platform I'd like too! /sarcasm
This is part of my main gripe with Apple. Simply put from Apple, "A 'walled garden' of both hardware and software is the only way to protect and provide the best experience for users". Except it wasn't and isn't. iTunes was allowed on Windows to sync iPODs, pretty much from day one, because money. They knew there was no way potential customers were going to switch to MACs to simply own an iPOD; they had to tap the Windows market or continue to struggle. Being able to steal digital music was also a key component. And because of that, we now have the success of Apple mobile hardware and streaming services, all because of a more open, cross compatibility approach to get iPods into the market.
AppleTV was only on their hardware until their hardware wasn't selling as well as the likes of Roku and AndroidTV by a wide enough margin. And when iPhone and iPAD sales are not what the used to be, Apple TV is on Roku, AndroidTV et. al., to increase the subscriber base to generate more money. At the end of the day, it's all about the money, not their ethos of design or experience or whatever else they claim.
The real lesson here is: the "walled garden" approach will only get you so far.
Re:Walled Garden Hyprocricy (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, that walled garden has a pretty big door on one side.
Re: (Score:3)
>AppleTV was only on their hardware until their hardware wasn't selling as well as the likes of Roku and AndroidTV by a wide enough margin. And when iPhone and iPAD sales are not what the used to be, Apple TV is on Roku, AndroidTV et. al., to increase the subscriber base to generate more money. At the end of the day, it's all about the money, not their ethos of design or experience or whatever else they claim.
That would be an odd business decision. For this to be related to iPhone sales we'd need to imag
Re: (Score:2)
The weather is fine in the walled garden.
I like my Apple TV without Apple TV+ on it.
economies of scale (Score:2)
You know that the market is broken when a volume of 1B subscriptions does not drive prices down.
Re: (Score:3)
Why is that a question of market behaviour? There is no market axiom covering a relationship between popularity and pricing. Supply and demand? Supply is effectively perfectly scalable, so demand doesn't mean anything. You have neither scarcity or overabundance.
The only thing that matters is what the market will bear - and that's driven by the question of viable alternatives. There are LOADS of viable alternatives. And nearly all of those alternatives can be used on Apple devices. Every service I use has an
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, plenty of people are subscribed to any number of services. It's incredibly easy to sign-up for give you simply download the application and then click a few buttons.
I have TV+ as part of the Apple One Premier. Although I rarely look at it, I'd anyway be paying around â27 for iCloud and Music, so an additional â4 gets me the TV, Arcade, and Fitness. I watch more Disney+ and Paramount, which are also subscriptions I have.
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You know that the market is broken when a volume of 1B subscriptions does not drive prices down.
We're in the age where the only driving factors are decided on by the people that run the companies at the top of the heap. To them, 1B subscriptions will mean it's much more feasible to justify an increase in prices. "Look at how valuable we are. We can start inching pricing up now and just wait until subscriptions drop off a bit before we stop."
That's modern business 101. MBA driven. Soulless bloodsucking greed. Worship the mighty profit. The profit is all.
Clearly nonsense (Score:4, Insightful)
Apple is claiming 1 in 7 people in the world are paying them money every month? This is comically false. This is the most idiotic, ridiculous, insane, not possibly anywhere close to reality bullshit number I've heard in a long time. It is almost as bad as Meta claiming their augmented reality project would grow to 3% of GDP which meant surpassing all natural resource production, including food. Why would any rational person swallow this load of crap?
This number is astonishingly brazen in it's fiction. It would only be barely believable if they claimed 1 in 7 in the US was paying them a subscription fee. But the entire world? Not a fucking chance in hell.This is a number that has been run through at least 5 marketing departments and 3 paid consulting firms to get it that high. It is as meaningful as the claims of a 19th century medicine man.
Re:Clearly nonsense (Score:4, Informative)
If an individual has two different accounts on /., does that make them twice as valuable as a target for ads? No. But if an individual buys 2 subscriptions per month from Apple, does that make them twice as valuable to the subscription revenue stream? Yes.
Re: Clearly nonsense (Score:2)
It does seem a bit large. I have an Apple One subscription, which gives me access to Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple News and Apple Fitness+, as well as more storage in iCloud. I wonder if those are all being counted separately?
They just said that have that number of paid subscriptions, not subscribers.
Subscriptions. (Score:2)
I hate them. :(