Breaking Down Apple’s Services Announcements (Premium)

This week’s Apple services event was anticlimactic, full of bluster but only vague promises for the most part.

And no offense to the Apple faithful, but if the single available service that came out of that event—News+, which is really just about magazines—is any indication, there’s not a whole of there, there. If you know what I mean.

To make my case, I am evaluating some key aspects of each service announcement. And instead of being wordy, I’ll cut right to the chase.

Availability

Only the least-interesting of the new services is now available, and only in two markets.

Apple TV+. Expected “later this fall.” No word on availability by country. But the new Apple TV app is requires should be available via iOS and tvOS this May, Apple TV this fall, Samsung smart TVs in the spring, and other smart TVs and set-top boxes, vaguely, “in the future.”

Apple Card. Expected “this summer,” but for “qualified customers” only in the U.S. only.

Apple Arcade. Expected in Fall 2019, in over 150 countries, in iOS, macOS, and tvOS.

News+. Available now, but only in iOS 12.2+ or macOS 10.14.4+ and only in the United States and Canada.

Cost

Looking for details on pricing? Keep looking.

Apple TV+. To be announced “later this fall.”

Apple Card. No fees, but the interest rate is unknown (and will likely vary according to credit rating)

Apple Arcade. No word on pricing or when we’ll find out.

News+. $9.99 per month. To read magazines.

Unique features

Aside from working with the devices you already own, Apple’s services do each offer a range of functionality that is either unique or at least seamless with those devices.

Apple TV+. Content aggregation from compatible services, unique content from Apple partner studios

Apple Card. Clearer labeling of merchants in bills, weekly and monthly spending summaries with advice, good privacy and security functionality, less rewarding (but secure) physical card for those places that don’t take Apple Pay.

Apple Arcade. Nothing. This is the vaguest of the announcements.

News+. If you are one of the few people who read digital magazines and your subscriptions are available from within News+, and you only want to read them on Apple devices, you may save some money.

Obvious problems

Apple doesn’t highlight the negatives of its offerings. I’ll do it.

Apple TV+. We already have too many streaming video services. Amazon Fire TV offers the same functionality. Apple’s control over in-house content is troubling. Apple isn’t offering subscription access to its movie and TV show libraries, which would be far more interesting. Where’s the content? Apple was very vague about the particulars and spent much of the announcement letting people from Hollywood slap each other on the back. Like we need more of that.

Apple Card. There are much better cash-back offers on credit cards out there, and no-fee credit cards are common too. Apple Pay doesn’t work on Android, the mobile system most people use. The no-fee thing is a red herring: Apple will still make money on every transaction.

Apple Arcade. This is pure vaporware, and Apple’s claims are nonsense. Developers already have complete freedom to develop the games they want, and they don’t need to be locked into a single platform. Lock-is a huge issue.

News+. Few people actually read magazines digitally, but there are other services like this already. Apple’s “human curated” content in News is terrible today and no better than what’s offered elsewhere. Many publishers are not participating. You are not getting a subscription to The Wall Street Journal, but rather random select articles. Individual digital magazine subscriptions are very inexpensive in many cases and if you only subscribe to 1-5 per year, you can save money by looking for them on Kindle instead.

Key take-aways

Apple’s event was more bark than bite, and it seems arbitrarily timed given that most of these services won’t be available anytime soon, while the one service that is available is very limited in every sense of the word. Apple’s fanbase is big enough that the firm should be able to make at least a few of these make sense from a revenues perspective. And I do still believe that Apple will meet its internal services revenues goals thanks in part to at least a few of these services.

Rating these from weakest to best, Apple Arcade stands out as the most obvious dog and the one service that may not make it in any meaningful way. That said, News+ is unessential as well, and it’s especially disappointing given that we know exactly what this thing is. At least Apple Arcade could surprise us.

Apple TV+ is a no-brainer and should see a usage surge like that of Apple Music but within the streaming video market. And part of that is thanks to Apple’s decision to not limit it to its own ecosystem of hardware. But Apple Card, despite the lack of competitiveness with the best credit cards out there today, is the real star: This is exactly the affordable luxury that Apple’s best customers crave, and it provides them with a way to further associate with the brand.

Apple Card is the big winner here. I just wish the real-world rewards were better.