TOBY SHAPSHAK: Apple offers fresh temptations
The iPhone maker casually announced a new iMac, iPads and AirPods as a warm-up to its hype-filled launch of new services
Known for its sexy hardware, Apple is trying to reinvent itself as a services company. This week it announced its much-anticipated news service, as well as a streaming service to rival Netflix, a games arcade and a credit card. Instead of the usual hype around physical product launches, Apple casually announced a new iMac, two new iPads and new AirPods as a warm-up to Monday’s hype-filled launch of these new services. That alone is remarkable. Faced with a saturated market for smartphones and declining sales of the iPhone, which accounts for two-thirds of its revenue, Apple is expanding its income opportunities. And it is banking on its massive installed base of iPhone and iPad users, many of whom are already paying for a service of some kind, including its App Store, iTunes, Apple Music, its iCloud storage offering and Apple Pay. Apple has some 360-million subscribers to these, which in the past quarter accounted for $10.9bn in revenue — which includes the 30% Apple takes from the ...
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