New iPhone 12 owners bombarded with free Apple Arcade offers

AppleInsider

Apple really wants you to try Apple Arcade. The company is using every resource at its disposal to inform new iPhone 12 owners that their recent handset purchase entitles them to three months of free access to the service.

Shortly after iPhone 12 was unveiled in October, Apple announced announced a trial offer that presents new iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and iPod touch owners with a 90-day taste of Apple Arcade.

For iPhone 12, the deadline to accept Apple's proposal ends 90 days after the handset is activated. And the company is letting buyers know.

Apple began advertising the promotion on Tuesday, less than a week after launch day iPhone 12 units landed in customers' hands. The tech giant used email, the App Store and, in a rare step, its various iOS platform tools to reach potential subscribers.

Customers received an App Store notification reading, "Start 3 Months of Apple Arcade for Free," and including stipulations of the deal. A separate email highlighting SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit and Crossy Road Castle extended Apple's "congratulations" on receiving "3 free months of Apple Arcade for the whole family." The Apple Arcade section of the App Store has also been updated to reflect the extended three-month trial period.

Perhaps most unusual is a dedicated section in the Settings app that urges users to redeem the offer within 90 days. The menu listing appears prominently at the top of the page, just below account settings.

The marketing blitz appears to impact only those users who are not currently subscribed to Apple Arcade.

Apple has in the past leveraged system push notifications to promote first-party products and service. In 2014, for example, a push notification was sent out to advertise App Store's (RED) campaign. More recently, the Apple Store app in 2018 pushed an ad promoting iPhone XR and XS.

Apple is aggressively marketing its new and existing services amid stiff competition from Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft and other major tech industry players. The company is battling stalwarts in a variety of segments, from music to video streaming to news and, now, subscription-based gaming. To better compete on price, the iPhone maker will later this year roll out a bundle called Apple One that wraps Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, iCloud storage and the forthcoming Apple Fitness+ into tiered monthly plans.

wood1208

If Apple is serious about video games business than design and create game console.

bakerzdosen

Yeah, it's annoying for sure.

anome

Haven't seen it...yet... but I already tried a free trial period and dumped it because it really wasn't useful to me.

I'd consider giving it another go, but really don't care enough to pursue it.

iloveapplegear

I have not had single message on arcade.
So bombarded, no not at all

crowley

A notification, an email and a section in settings.app hardly seems like a “bombardment”. 

citpeks

Did similar notifications in Settings offering iCloud storage, the free year of AppleTV+ promo, and AppleCare+ somehow go unnoticed?

The one pushing additional iCloud storage is triggered in response to failed backups due to insufficient space, and is actually the most obtrusive because it throws up a entire screen of its own.  It has been around since at least iOS 12.  The others are benign in comparison.

The one for AppleCare+ is kind of helpful, counting down the 60 day grace period if it is not purchased at the same time as the device.

I'd prefer to not have any of these things, but they're relatively mild.

If they're that annoying, wait until some overzealous regulators declare that Apple is a monopolist, and enact poorly written laws that force 3rd party apps, marketplaces, and payment methods to be installed at the factory.  Anyone looking forward to that?

edited October 2020

entropys

If Apple wants people to sign up to arcade here is a my handy tip:

• develop or purchase a set of must have, exclusive games. 

That is it. All Apple needs to do. Maybe if it must do something about a decent controller too.

crowley

entropys said:

If Apple wants people to sign up to arcade here is a my handy tip:

• develop or purchase a set of must have, exclusive games. 

That is it. All Apple needs to do. Maybe if it must do something about a decent controller too.

Even if there was such thing as a "must have" game, Apple are not alone in wanting to make them, or in not having a magical formula for making them.  Making games is hard.

prismatics

crowley said:

A notification, an email and a section in settings.app hardly seems like a “bombardment”. 

Why does settings.app contain a certain type of notification, an email and a section (defined by its intended purpose as an "ad") in the first place?

Does Google or Microsoft get the same possibility of serving advertisements in a system preferences pane on iOS??????

The point being is that this behaviour is extremely unusual (and I even think inappropriate) for apple to serve an ad like this, and I hope this will not continue going forward (e.g. place an order for iPhone 12 now and save 100€, limited deal in the lock screen or something like that).

edited October 2020

mr lizard

When your CEO sets a goal to grow services subscriber revenue, this is what happens. 

Apple previously used to state that their goal wasn’t “most” of something, but the “best” of something. Sometimes it also happened that they sold the most, as was the case with MP3 players, sometimes not, as with personal computers. 

I’m sure Apple’s always had internal revenue goals, but Tim’s subscriber goal marked the first time the company had ever publicly stated they were chasing numbers. 

And now we had ads within settings. 

pascalxx

prismatics said:

crowley said:

A notification, an email and a section in settings.app hardly seems like a “bombardment”. 

Why does settings.app contain a certain type of notification, an email and a section (defined by its intended purpose as an "ad") in the first place?

Does Google or Microsoft get the same possibility of serving advertisements in a system preferences pane on iOS??????

The point being is that this behaviour is extremely unusual (and I even think inappropriate) for apple to serve an ad like this, and I hope this will not continue going forward (e.g. place an order for iPhone 12 now and save 100€, limited deal in the lock screen or something like that).

I agree. This doesn’t look great from an antritrust standpoint, especially at a time when Apple is facing increased scrutiny.
The notification that gets turned on after each iOS update on my devices is the reminder about setting up Apple Pay, as though that’s an essential feature...

buffyzdead

I signed up.   ...as a video game player that cannot keep up with the complexities of console gaming,
I found the Arcade Games extremely interactive , challenging and Fun !!

Im probably the perfect market segment.....No time for console gaming but playing
an impromptu, arcade-game, on my iPad or iPhone or Apple TV  for ~15 MINS ...PERFECT !...   .     ....I'll be keeping it

edited October 2020

cloudguy

wood1208 said:

If Apple is serious about video games business than design and create game console.

3 reasons why this makes no sense.

1. Video game revenue on iOS dwarfs video game revenue on PlayStation, XBox and Nintendo combined.
2. Since XBox in 2001 there have been no successful new video game platforms. Quite the contrary we have seen major entities like Sega leave the console market since then. 
3. Mobile gaming - which has been a thing for going on 15 years - as well as PC gaming (multiple successful platforms) as well as cloud gaming (including those that incorporate existing console and PC gaming platforms like GeForce Now with Steam and xCloud with XBox) means that launching a new gaming console platform will be impossible.

Sorry. That ship has sailed. The opportunity for Apple to get into console gaming would have been years ago when Nintendo and XBox were both in their doldrums.

randominternetperson

I got my new iPhone 12 on Friday, and I haven't received a notification and don't see this announcement in the Settings app.  Perhaps it's because I migrated directly from my prior iPhone rather than setting up from scratch?

The only "ad" like this that I see is a notification at the top of settings that I have 57 days left to add AppleCare+.

As to the premise that Apple "is using every resource at its disposal" that is complete hyperbole.  I'd say they are very restrained compared to the crap that "freemium" apps do.

corebeliefs

Bombarded is accurate. And they are sending it to current subscribers.

I'm thinking, they must be offering to add three months to the end of my subscription, so I try to redeem it. "Someone in your household has already ..." But that's not true.

The settings menu should not be used to advertise anything except a new OS update. 

outdoorappdeveloper

How do you turn off Apple ads in iOS?

jcs2305

mr lizard said:

When your CEO sets a goal to grow services subscriber revenue, this is what happens. 

Apple previously used to state that their goal wasn’t “most” of something, but the “best” of something. Sometimes it also happened that they sold the most, as was the case with MP3 players, sometimes not, as with personal computers. 

I’m sure Apple’s always had internal revenue goals, but Tim’s subscriber goal marked the first time the company had ever publicly stated they were chasing numbers. 

And now we had ads within settings. 

Easy with the fake outrage my goodness. There was no ad. It was a reminder below the iCloud area of setting at the very top.  You are making it as if there are pop ups all over the place when you go into the settings app because Apple is chasing numbers as you put it?  I personally received one email letting me know about the offer. I never even noticed any reminder within settings at all. I bought an new iPad back in July and no phone yet this year so I am thinking that is why I received the free offer.

Apple did the same reminder with Apple Care when I purchased my 11 Pro Max last year as well.  A subtle reminder of how long my device was eligible for Apple Care and buying options.. same place in settings so red badge same email.. same everything.  I couldn't have been the only person who had this show up when they bought new phones or iPads? Yet not a peep.. no outrage and complaints of being bombarded at all that I have seen or heard?

That reminder actually worked out good for me as I had enough cash back on a credit card to pay for apple care. I just needed to grab the card and make the purchase and the reminder helped me out. I also took advantage of another 3 free months of Arcade to see if they had more to offer since the last time I tried it for free last year.

mr lizard

jcs2305 said:

mr lizard said:

When your CEO sets a goal to grow services subscriber revenue, this is what happens. 

Apple previously used to state that their goal wasn’t “most” of something, but the “best” of something. Sometimes it also happened that they sold the most, as was the case with MP3 players, sometimes not, as with personal computers. 

I’m sure Apple’s always had internal revenue goals, but Tim’s subscriber goal marked the first time the company had ever publicly stated they were chasing numbers. 

And now we had ads within settings. 

Easy with the fake outrage my goodness. There was no ad. It was a reminder below the iCloud area of setting at the very top.  You are making it as if there are pop ups all over the place when you go into the settings app because Apple is chasing numbers as you put it?  I personally received one email letting me know about the offer. I never even noticed any reminder within settings at all. I bought an new iPad back in July and no phone yet this year so I am thinking that is why I received the free offer.

Apple did the same reminder with Apple Care when I purchased my 11 Pro Max last year as well.  A subtle reminder of how long my device was eligible for Apple Care and buying options.. same place in settings so red badge same email.. same everything.  I couldn't have been the only person who had this show up when they bought new phones or iPads? Yet not a peep.. no outrage and complaints of being bombarded at all that I have seen or heard?

That reminder actually worked out good for me as I had enough cash back on a credit card to pay for apple care. I just needed to grab the card and make the purchase and the reminder helped me out. I also took advantage of another 3 free months of Arcade to see if they had more to offer since the last time I tried it for free last year.

"Easy with the fake outrage my goodness."

I'm neither outraged nor pretending to be. Quite relaxed, actually. 

"You are making it as if there are pop ups all over the place when you go into the settings app"

No, I said there's ads within settings. I haven't mentioned "pop ups all over the place when you go into the settings app". There are no "pop up ads all over the place when you go into the settings app". 

"because Apple is chasing numbers as you put it?"

Not as I put it, but as Apple put it. Apple's CEO publicly stated on Apple's Q1 2017 investor conference call (the transcript of which is public record) that Apple had set a goal to double services revenue by the end of 2020. On Apple's Q1 2020 investor conference call (the transcript of which is also public record) Apple's CFO revealed that Apple had a goal of 500 million paid subscribers by the end of Q2 2020. 

"Apple did the same reminder with Apple Care when I purchased my 11 Pro Max last year as well."

Correct. 

"I couldn't have been the only person who had this show up"

You weren't. 

"Yet not a peep"

It was covered by a number of outlets at the time. I read it on nine to five mac dot com. 

"That reminder actually worked out good for me as I had enough cash back on a credit card to pay for apple care. I just needed to grab the card and make the purchase and the reminder helped me out. I also took advantage of another 3 free months of Arcade to see if they had more to offer since the last time I tried it for free last year."

I'm very happy for you. 

beats

Meanwhile kids are dying of starvation.....

corebeliefs

Beats said:

Meanwhile kids are dying of starvation.....

It is terrible that any child goes to bed hungry. I completely agree. Many people are trying to solve this, and we can each do our part in many ways.

This article is pointing out the way Apple is, or could be, monetizing its many users. Apple has stressed how much our privacy is paramount. It is said that a billion iPhones are in use globally. So any policy that Apple enacts affects a lot of people. This article, to me, is a curiosity at this point. We'll have to see whether Apple promotes its services more aggressively. It's not a human rights issue, but it is a consumer rights issue, and perhaps a privacy-rights issue moving forward. We will have to see.