Everything under Eddy Cue is a bit of a mess. I've said before I think he needs to go or have his portfolio reduced. His organization is basically everything that doesn't neatly fit somewhere else. It's too big and a lot of it he's not the right fit for IMO, especially things like iCloud, Siri and Apple Maps.
People can throw up all kinds of numbers around a loosely defined category called "services" because they're panicking over iPhone's slowing growth, but Apple actually needs to get good at services before it can be considered a services company. And right now it's not at all. Also one can't just assume users are going to subscribe to all these "services". Apple has what. 700-800M credit card accounts and Apple Music subscriptions are maybe 1-2% of that. I can say in my circle of family and friends I'm almost the only one with an Apple Music subscription. Everyone else either uses Pandora, free version of Spotify or YouTube. So "monetizing the user base" isn't a slam dunk.
Agreed. It's even more clear to me when I list it out like that. And what I listed are not just isolated, personal peves; they're huge issues that apply to pretty much everyone that use the services. One of the reasons I love Apple is that I can trust them to put the effort and thought into making the best product, not having to worry about inferiority or gimmicks. That is very clear in their hardware and system software, which, by and large, is amazing. But Apple's services not only do not meet that standard, they are well below par. And in some cases abysmal.
The only 4 people I know with Apple music are ones that I personally convinced to join it. I know a lot more people that use spotify that should definitely be using Apple music instead, but aren't.
AppleMusic may be a small percentage of users. But that is the general market right now. Not many people pay for streaming music (less than 100 million worldwide) but Apple already has about 15% of the market. But streaming music will keep increasing as will Apple Music subs.
Apple is good at services. iTunes, AppleMusic, iCloud, ApplePay, Messages, iMovie, Maps, Apple News, ect. Are they the best at every category? Hell no. But they do a good to decent job in many categories. But I can see Apple buying more services companies to boost their services in the future.
I wonder why you are always grumbling about iCloud? It works fine for me. Much better than GoogleDrive/Google Photos.
Apple should not be lauded for services that are more or less rote tasks (e.g. messages, apple news, selling things in an online store that's poorly organized and difficult to find content in). Their other services are lacking in some VERY substantial and key ways. Another example I forgot to mention was Mail; I'm far far from a power user, but it drives me nuts sometimes, for example the spam filtering.
BTW, I always really appreciate your number/financial breakdowns.
I'm sorry but this is all BS. This is hardware growth slowing, especially iPhone, so we gotta come up with a new narrative so oh hey let's turn Apple into a services company! Apple is not a real services business. Everything it does is with the goal of selling more hardware, making hardware more desirable. If Apple was a real services company all their 'services' would be in every platform and/or the web. Also what Gene Munster is now valuing has always existed. It's it like Apple all of a sudden has 800M people with credit cards on file. If iPhone and iPad growth were off the charts, if an actual Apple television set was in development a Gene Munster wouldn't be pushing this Apple is a services company narrative.
Apple is a services company. Has been for a very long time.
patently false. I hope you're just a windy poster rather than the investor you claim to be.
Hardware is where and how Apple makes is money. The software and services support it, not the other way around. End of story.
End of story.........until hardware sales reach a limit. We are there soon.
Apple won't stay still. They will constantly want to grow. And a way to grow is to expand the reach of iOS/OSX. The best way to do that is to license the OS for a pretty penny. There will still be a large core of customers who will only buy Apple branded phones. But opening up iOS to other hardware makers will allow Apple to reach other price points without risking massive capital.
so ludicrous for so many reasons. a few:
- iOS on Samsung devalues iOS/iPhone - iOS supporting various hardware opens it to the same troubles as Windows/Android - iOS decoupled from the hardware decreases the cohesive, well-run experience that is iPhone - "Only Apple"
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The only 4 people I know with Apple music are ones that I personally convinced to join it. I know a lot more people that use spotify that should definitely be using Apple music instead, but aren't.
Apple should not be lauded for services that are more or less rote tasks (e.g. messages, apple news, selling things in an online store that's poorly organized and difficult to find content in). Their other services are lacking in some VERY substantial and key ways. Another example I forgot to mention was Mail; I'm far far from a power user, but it drives me nuts sometimes, for example the spam filtering.
BTW, I always really appreciate your number/financial breakdowns.
so ludicrous for so many reasons. a few:
- iOS on Samsung devalues iOS/iPhone
- iOS supporting various hardware opens it to the same troubles as Windows/Android
- iOS decoupled from the hardware decreases the cohesive, well-run experience that is iPhone
- "Only Apple"