I can’t get excited about services. I mean what’s exciting about Apple taking 30% or 15% of someone subscribing to HBO via the TV app? To me Apple is at its best when making great products. Taking a commission off of someone else’s revenue is not a great product. I struggle to even call it a service. It’s like a tax that gets passed on to the consumer.
It's a good point. A pretty valid argument can be made that the bulk of Apple's "services" are really just a (digital) retail model (selling other people's product at a markup).
Of course we'll never see it, but I'd love to see the breakdown among:
App Store (digital reselling/retail)
Apple Music (digital reselling/retail)
iCloud
iTunes (digital reselling/retail)
Apple Pay
AppleCare
Apple would never do that for competitive reasons. But they’ll also never do it because it would show the bulk of services is made up of Apple’s cut of IAP, iCloud storage and what Google pays them to be the default search engine. Does Apple really want to say our services grew 20% because more and more kids are spending money buying coins and other crap in games? Or paying $2 to remove ads from a game? Same with iCloud. If they’re making more money off it doesn’t that just indicate the free storage tier isn’t enough? Even this new TV service at the end of the day is mostly Apple taking a cut of other people’s subscriptions. Apple is hoping a lot of people sign up for HBO, Showtime etc. in the TV app and then they get a cut of it. Again, all ways of making money but as a consumer/fan not ones that really excite me. And it will get even less exciting if Apple starts pushing ads to devices. I’ve seen screen shots of people getting push notifications to sign up for Apple Music and “ads” for Apple Care and iCloud in settings. That degrades the UX.
"But they’ll also never do it because it would show the bulk of services is made up of Apple’s cut of IAP, iCloud storage and what Google pays them to be the default search engine."
This is true
"Again, all ways of making money but as a consumer/fan not ones that really excite me."
Apple’s profit is 16% down this quarter when compared with the same quarter last year. However, the stock is up over 4%. I guess Wall Street finally gets Apple the same way it gets Amazon.
Is it their profit that's down 16% or do you mean their revenue?
The tax cut is likely responsible for the dip in sales. working and middle class people didn’t receive refunds or saw them reduced.
Assume this is sarcasm because it certainly isn't true.
They have seen refunds reduced or *Surprise!* they owe the IRS more than expected. My daughter was one of those who traditionally rec'd a refund but this year owed it instead. It wasn't much that was owed but when you expect and plan for a refund it does change spending habits in the short term. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/6/18214039/irs-tax-refund-withholding-trump
The tax cut is likely responsible for the dip in sales. working and middle class people didn’t receive refunds or saw them reduced.
Assume this is sarcasm because it certainly isn't true.
They have seen refunds reduced or *Surprise!* they owe the IRS more than expected. My daughter was one of those who traditionally rec'd a refund but this year owed it instead. It wasn't much that was owed but when you expect and plan for a refund it does change spending habits in the short term. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/6/18214039/irs-tax-refund-withholding-trump
She probably owed because her paycheck went up. That was the case for 99% that got a smaller refund than usual. They also did away with some deductions.
Vox is known as an extremely liberal site so I'm not clicking on that. They can't be trusted as we've seen with the collusion hoax.
Comments
This is true
"Again, all ways of making money but as a consumer/fan not ones that really excite me."
What kind of services excite you?
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/6/18214039/irs-tax-refund-withholding-trump
Vox is known as an extremely liberal site so I'm not clicking on that. They can't be trusted as we've seen with the collusion hoax.