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Apple Reportedly Considering Extending Apple TV+ Free Trial

masterleep said:
Practically nobody wants to pay for Apple TV+.
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I could see this becoming something I’d pay for a couple months a year. $5 isn’t bad at all if I can watch a whole series (ravens quest, Ted lasso, morning show) or a movie (greyhound) that I enjoyed. It’s cheaper than many one-time digital rentals out there. The amount of content limits my need to keep it all year round, right now.
But i think it should be included in a new device purchase (laptop, phone, desktop).

Edit:Forgot about the Banker. Enjoyed that one, too.
 
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"The offer of a generous year-long free trial for Apple TV+...."

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, (ad infinitum).

They couldn't charge us for such a pathetic few offerings like the ones they have. The service is garbage. Nothing much worth watching, and certainly not worth paying for. I have rarely watched anything on AppleTV+. The one exception of any merit was the Tom Hanks movie "Greyhound" that was recently released. Throwing big name stars into garbage shows just makes them expensive garbage. Once my free trial ends, I won’t be paying to renew it.
 
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nattK said:
I don't understand their rationale for extending the free trial. As a customer, I would love getting something free for a longer period of time. However, from a business point of view, if a year is insufficient to convince someone to subscribe to Apple TV+, I don't see how a couple extra months would make a difference.
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They planned to have much more content by now but the virus prevented the shows from being made. So a delay to allow them to produce the product they intended to provide makes sense.
 
We're nearly a year into the service with most people in their fanbase getting a year-long free trial. If the service was great, the narrative at this point should easily be "shut up and take my money". If the service was good, we'd expect the narrative to be "I'm weighing whether it's worth it". Either of those would indicate a fairly solid launch year.

Instead, the overriding narrative remains one of, "I've given it a year and there was almost nothing worth watching". Some people have obviously had a much better experience with it, but there's no denying that they're in the minority and that the overall narrative is negative. And these are Apple's biggest fans. Once you move outside of the Apple fanbase, the narrative gets even worse.

Which isn't to say that there aren't some gems in there, nor is it to say that it won't get better, but there's simply not enough right now. There's not enough quantity of content to keep people coming back for more month after month, not enough high quality content (despite having very high production values) to hook people in the first place, and not enough breadth of content to appeal to a mass market.
 
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Excellent timing as I must cancel mine! Had it since got the new iPhone last September, not used it....nothing that grabs me yet - trying to avoid death by subscription....
 
As others have said, the content is generally good - I enjoyed The Morning Show and Defending Jacob - but that's not enough to justify paying half the price of a Netflix account where there's so much content.
 
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nattK said:
I don't understand their rationale for extending the free trial. As a customer, I would love getting something free for a longer period of time. However, from a business point of view, if a year is insufficient to convince someone to subscribe to Apple TV+, I don't see how a couple extra months would make a difference.
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Giving it away for free has enabled them to falsely report huge growth in services. Despite the fact that they are giving it away, since they are giving it away with a hardware purchase, Apple is reallocating $65 worth of your hardware purchase to services revenue. So even though no one has paid for Apple TV+, Apple is pretending they did, and reporting it as such on the books.

For as long as Apple continues to give it away, it continues to look like an insanely profitable service on the books.
 
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It's tough with so many services these days. It can add up, and I think most folks are paring down their viewing while the number of these go up. I'm down to HBO and that's it. No cable, no satellite, no local -- nothing. We've been that way for a while and we don't even miss it. There's actually a world outside the wall...
 
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Unggoy Murderer said:
First impressions are great so far. I don't get why people are so negative about it at all. I've really enjoyed See, Mythic Quest, and Defending Jacob, and I'll start watching For All Mankind at some point soon too.

The trail makes sense when there isn't a huge amount of content, they'll grow their selection over time. I'll be happy to pay £4.99/m when the catalogue expands to when there's always something I'm interested in ready to go (like I can do with Netflix / Disney+ just now).
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I agree, we've watched a ton of stuff on it, for all mankind, defending jacob, truth be told, the morning show, see, home before dark, amazing stories, little voice, trying, home and our latest favourite is ted lasso. I'll definitely renew our year when its up. we have disney + also, thats what would get ditched before I dropped apple tv +

on a side note, the image quality is superb, much better than all the other streaming services, the 4K HDR content looks amazing
 
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So far the only thing I’ve really liked on ATV+ is Ted Lasso. Definitely not worth $5 a month in perpetuity.
 
Rogifan said:
If App Store, Apple Care and iCloud were separated from Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple News+ and Apple Arcade I wonder what the latter would look like. Right now Apple is able to bury them amongst other items that are successful. I do wonder when investors will start squawking about Apple not providing enough information on services.
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Good points. I don't think Apple will provide that data, just like they don't provide iPhone sales numbers anymore and never provided Apple Watch numbers. They should be more transparent, but if investors aren't gonna give them a hard time about it like they did in October 2018, I guess they never will.
 
PaulpBenitti said:
Whether you do or not, Apple has already reported $65 of services revenue from you.

Of course Apple wants to extend their offer. Nothing like publicly misleading shareholders about services revenue and getting away with it.
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Then I have done my part I suppose.
 
I'm going to sound like Mr Grumpy, but despite being eligible for the free year when I purchased an iPhone 11 Pro Max last year, I didn't bother with AppleTV+ as I can't get the app for it on my 2017 LG 55" OLED C7 TV.

*Please* don't tell me that I should plug an AppleTV into my set. I like LG's WebOS and it has all the other streaming services that I use. I'm really not going to buy what is now ancient AppleTV hardware just to watch AppleTV+ because Apple (or LG) can't be bothered to release the software for "older" sets that would easily be able to run it.

So pleased I got that off my chest! 😂
 
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I think this is honestly pretty smart. If the reason for the year-long free trial was to draw in users for the long term, I’m sure that COVID halting development on new shows/movies cut that engagement short. Extending it another 6 months or so would help in the long term I’d say.
 
I've enjoyed The Morning Show, Defending Jacob, Ted Lasso, and For All Mankind in that order. I did not care for Central Park. Still want to watch the Servant, Greyhound, and The Banker.

$100 is a lot to pay for ~32 hours of seasonal content IMO. I think Apple should continue offering free AppleTV+ for buyers of new iOS devices or at least heavily discount it.
 
The worst thing about Apple TV (service) is the really crappy user experience. It's so confusing when you only use it occasionally and then want to find the conent that is actually covered by the subscription.

I will very likely cancel the one year trial once it's over. It was nice watching some shows for free. But I would not pay for the current catalogue.
 
How many actually know when their AppleTV+ FREE trial ends ?

I certainly don't, but will look into it later today.

Most find out AFTER it had ended, & they are charged $4.99 for the first NON-FREE month.

I'll bet AAPL, & perhaps others, count that as a Paid Subscriber, even if that Paid Subscriber CANCELS their Sub in the first NON-FREE month !

The so-called Pro Stock Analysts who ask questions at AAPL Earnings Releases NEVER ask the really important questions, like: "How many have stuck with the Service as a Paid Subscriber for "3+ consecutive months" ?"

That's the key question that should be asked to Tim Cook at AAPL's NEXT Earnings Release, for EACH of the company's services !

Munster, Ives, Huberty, & Cramer would NEVER ask an important Question like that to Cook !

It would be counter to their "AAPL Cheerleader" philosophy & strategy !
 
SaxPlayer said:
I'm going to sound like Mr Grumpy, but despite being eligible for the free year when I purchased an iPhone 11 Pro Max last year, I didn't bother with AppleTV+ as I can't get the app for it on my 2017 LG 55" OLED C7 TV.

*Please* don't tell me that I should plug an AppleTV into my set. I like LG's WebOS and it has all the other streaming services that I use. I'm really not going to buy what is now ancient AppleTV hardware just to watch AppleTV+ because Apple (or LG) can't be bothered to release the software for "older" sets that would easily be able to run it.

So pleased I got that off my chest! 😂
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Well... The reason I have AppleTV plugged into my Sony and LG TVs, is so I don't need to connect those TVs directly into my network. AppleTV+ being available is icing.
 
cmaier said:
Not true. I’ve surveyed everyone. Most want to pay for it.
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That was a brilliant comment! It's a witty rejoinder that should be used to anyone who cites surveys -- or takes their data at face value -- and that includes many tech journalists! Too bad that your sharp satire was missed by some others... 115 out of 75 people agree with me!

nattK said:
I don't understand their rationale for extending the free trial. As a customer, I would love getting something free for a longer period of time. However, from a business point of view, if a year is insufficient to convince someone to subscribe to Apple TV+, I don't see how a couple extra months would make a difference.
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This was confusing to me initially, too. However, in re-reading the article, it's pretty clear that it's the *program* that's being extended not current users' free trials.

Plus, there was another line about the new program involving a *shorter* free period, less than a year.

"As the first free trials will come to an end next month, Apple is apparently considering an extension of the free trial program. Gurman's sources say this would take shape as a continued free access offer with the purchase of a new Apple device, but now for a period shorter than a year."

In other words, customers won't be getting an extension or a longer trial period. So, it turns out that your remark is spot on, anyway. A year is more than sufficient as you mentioned; indeed, it sounds like Apple is thinking that the free trial should be for *less* -- not more -- time in the future.

Finally, I'll note that the blurb says "apparently considering" not that it's been decided!
 
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nattK said:
I don't understand their rationale for extending the free trial. As a customer, I would love getting something free for a longer period of time. However, from a business point of view, if a year is insufficient to convince someone to subscribe to Apple TV+, I don't see how a couple extra months would make a difference.
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I don’t think that’s what they are planning.
I think the plan is to continue to offer free Apple TV+ to customers who buy new Apple devices, but for a shorter period.
I don’t think the plan is to give the existing customers with a years free Apple TV+ extra months free.
 
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