Focusing on Services was a brilliant move by Apple
This was a brilliant strategy and here’s why. If Apple can’t sell an iPhone user a new iPhone, it can still get him/her hooked on Apple Music, or Apple News. And with one billion iPhones still being used, the odds are that Apple is going to earn plenty of recurring income each month. And this doesn’t include Services such as Apple Pay from which Apple takes a small percentage of the amount of a transaction being paid for with the service.
Apple Maps introduced highly detailed 3D city experience maps in some locations
There are other apps available that collect huge sums of money even if not all of these revenues are recurring. The App Store is a good example of that. Some apps require one-time payments and others do ask for monthly payments; either way, Apple takes its 15% to 30% cut. App Store sales soared to record heights this year during the period between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve leading the way for double-digit year-over-year growth in revenue
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services said, “Apple’s world-class portfolio of services proved essential in 2021, as people worldwide sought new ways to keep entertained, informed, connected, and inspired. With over 745 million paid subscriptions, Apple continues to connect the world’s developers, artists, and storytellers with users across more than a billion devices, delivering powerful tools, content, and experiences that enrich their lives in profound ways every day.”
Apple Music added lossless audio, spatial audio, and other new features last year
Apple Music had a big year in 2021 with 90 million tunes now available to stream in lossless audio. Spatial audio allows music to be delivered in that 3D space around the listener’s head. Music sounds like it is coming from the front, the back, and the sides of the user. Other new features added to Apple Music this past year included autoplay, lyrics share, city charts (featuring the top songs in 100 cities), motion cover art, enhanced search, Shared with You (which bundles together content sent to you by your contacts), and the revised Listen Now tab.
Apple One offers bundles of Apple Services at rates that will save you money
Apple says that its Apple News app has been the number one news app in every market where it is available. Apple Pay added nine new markets including Colombia, Israel, and Mexico. Apple says that the mobile payment platform is available in approximately 60 countries and regions, and has 9,000 bank partners worldwide.
Apple Wallet in 2021 added the ability to store COVID-19 vaccination cards in the secure digital wallet and in 200 cities worldwide, tapping an iPhone or Apple Watch will allow commuters to pay for their train and bus fare. And college students can digitally store their campus identification on their wallet apps.
Apple Maps keeps getting better
Continuing to rise from the ashes of a horrible release, Apple Maps added amazingly detailed 3D maps, “custom-designed landmarks, and a beautiful nighttime mode with a moonlit glow that activates at dusk.” These detailed “City Experience” maps are available to iPhone and CarPlay users in London, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Later this year these maps will also be available in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.
And for $29.95 each month, the Premier Plan comes with Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, 2TB of Apple iCloud+, News+, and Fitness+. This plan saves the subscriber a whopping $25 per month.
