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Over 200,000 People Subscribed to Apple News+ in First 48 Hours After Launch

cyb3rdud3 said:
They will come. Many a bank said the same about Apple Pay. Now they see their revenue disappear as their customers choose competitors. And don’t forget the international markets. The world is a big place.
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What do you mean by this? I tether my credit cards to Apple Pay. Apple Pay isn’t a credit card
 
DevNull0 said:
I agree with you. You can't tell anything with a 48 hour window of paid trials. As a long time off and on user of the service (next issue and then texture) I really like the concept and will continue to subscribe with Apple 3-4 months a year on average. But one really has to wonder what apple's target is here. Time magazine has the largest print readership in the world of a weekly news magazine. In 2012 their circulation was 3 million and by 2017 it was 2 million. Most of the niche magazines in the library have a circulation closer to 50,000.

Even if Apple manages to get 2 million readers, that's still only $120 million a year in revenue for Apple. An insignificant blip that's not worth the time and effort invested, especially since that's not $120 million in profit, they have infrastructure costs, app development, legal and contract issues that will eat into it a lot. They must have already invested a lot of time of their high level people getting this all set up. Their sales on 17" macbook pros were $150 million/year back when they were only $3000 for such a high end model. And Apple killed off that product because the money was just too small an amount to be worth their while. Given the current pricing on MacBooks compared to 2011, it's likely they'd be selling a lot more than $150 million/year worth today.

I wonder how many subscribers Apple feels they need and are expecting to make this worthwhile. When you look at the library, there is a very limited appeal outside of Canada and the US. It's hard to imagine them ever getting subscriber numbers in the millions. And even though I am a happy user of the service, most of the magazines I really like are not available on the service. Scientific American (which I do have a subscription to), Nuts and Volts, Circuit Cellar and MagPi come to mind. I like technology magazines, so I found it kind of pathetic that during the keynote when they show their selection of magazines for "gear heads" they've got a few tech magazines and Golf magazine prominently on the screen.
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For whatever it's worth, Neil Cybart of AboveAvalon estimates that Apple's services is estimated to generate about $4 billion annually within 3 years. Potentially higher if Apple is willing to release some sort of content bundle. It's not really a lot (roughly 3-5% of annual profits), which is why I don't really agree with the narrative that Apple is turning into a services company.

Rather, Apple is putting its money where their mouth is, and helping to support publishers, game developers, and storytellers. The end goal is very simple - to help sustain a thriving ecosystem, which in turn adds value to the Apple platform and in turn incentivises users to continue using Apple hardware.

In the end, it's all about the ecosystem.
 
Abazigal said:
which is why I don't really agree with the narrative that Apple is turning into a services company.
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If the bulk of their profit and growth is from hardware and that is close to a plateau threshold, what would you do here?
 
ipponrg said:
If the bulk of their profit and growth is from hardware and that is close to a plateau threshold, what would you do here?
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Apple essentially has three choices. More hardware, higher prices, and services.

Currently, I don't see services being a major revenue / profit driver for Apple, at least not in the near future, considering they don't even own most of the content those new services are offering, so a large bulk of the money they earn is still going to be paid out to content owners anyways.

Apple's margins have more or less remained the same, which implies that their products cost more mainly because they cost more to make. Yes, I know how percentages work; my point is that Apple might not be benefiting as much from higher prices as the critics might have you believe.

Which leaves the last option - pivot into a new market. Which in Apple's case, is wearables.

Right now, wearables is still in its infancy and the revenue from sales of AirPods and apple watches combined still pales in comparison to the iPhone, but I do foresee a future (~5 years) where the amount of money they bring in will be much more significant.
 
nikaru said:
Yeah, I can speek for 150M people in Germany in France first because the service is not available there, and second because there is not a single French or German newspaper or magazine available in the News+ library. So YES, the French and German could not care less about this service. It is not hating, it is the reality.
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Oh, so this couldn't be expanded to other countries with relevant news?

Apple is in the FIRST stage of this service. People in Germany and France are no different than people in other developed markets. Apple just hasn't gotten to them yet. Hate on.
 
cyb3rdud3 said:
And how much to you think the people working at a magazine are getting today after printing, distribution, retail space etc. Do you honestly think that when you pay the money to the newsagents or bookstore or corner shop that they get much more?

And that they'll have the same global reach?

Like my grandmother taught me; I'd rather have a small percentage of a lot, than a big percentage of nothing...
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You and your grandma have a point. However, I still believe that Apple could have given publishers a bit more even though they provide this great platform. Though I will argue it is not global, at least not yet. Only some English speaking countries currently have the app at all, US, UK, Canada and Australia. Not exactly what I would call global.
 
Baymowe335 said:
Oh, so this couldn't be expanded to other countries with relevant news?

Apple is in the FIRST stage of this service. People in Germany and France are no different than people in other developed markets. Apple just hasn't gotten to them yet. Hate on.
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Ofc they can expand the service to other countries and include local bundles of newspapers and magazines. My point is that they didnt do it on day 1, which, for a global company such as Apple is absolutely ridiculous as they are loosing momentum and all the hype and publicity surronding the launch of this new service. In other words, Apple failed on launch and they didnt even announce when we could expect the service to expand to other regions. US is not accounting even for a half of Apple revenue anymore, and the Apple users outside US are several times more than those in the US. Basically, Apple launched a service that is not available for a big majority of their customers and you consider that this remotly sucessful launch? BTW, Im still waiting for Apple News (not News+) to be available in Spain, two years after it was announced in the US. For comparasion, Spain is bigger than California in terms of population.
 
nikaru said:
Ofc they can expand the service to other countries and include local bundles of newspapers and magazines. My point is that they didnt do it on day 1, which, for a global company such as Apple is absolutely ridiculous as they are loosing momentum and all the hype and publicity surronding the launch of this new service. In other words, Apple failed on launch and they didnt even announce when we could expect the service to expand to other regions. US is not accounting even for a half of Apple revenue anymore, and the Apple users outside US are several times more than those in the US. Basically, Apple launched a service that is not available for a big majority of their customers and you consider that this remotly sucessful launch? BTW, Im still waiting for Apple News (not News+) to be available in Spain, two years after it was announced in the US. For comparasion, Spain is bigger than California in terms of population.
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I love your armchair CEO'ing and the unfounded criticism of the best executing company in the world with a $45B services business, growing at 20%.
 
There are a few magazines that I receive monthly for free as a member of various clubs and companies. But I have not read a single one of those magazines in a few years. They literally get tossed in the trash the moment I receive them. I used to keep them, expecting to one day get back to a magazine I missed, even if only to skim it, but not even that ever happened. It just became a large pile ... which for a minimalist, who doesn’t like having a lot of “stuff”, irked me. So I started just throwing them in the trash, and now the magazines that arrive feel like spam mail.

Part of the problem was that I read one to two hours of news articles through Flipboard daily, so by time I’d get to the actual magazines it was information overload and I was disinterested. Having both the online news, and magazines in a single location, without taking up physical space like magazines, and on me at all times, leaves me more prone to read a magazine. I think the convenience, it all being centrally accessible, will cause many trial users to stay, and that will be good for the magazine companies.

Anyway, on another note, the whole NYTimes thing isn’t a matter of simply comparing subscriptions and percentages. That’s an over-simplification and doesn’t even come close to the reality of the situation. Other magazines / papers have outlined why it doesn’t work like that. Here’s an article that reflects it a bit:

https://9to5mac.com/2019/04/02/apple-news-publishers/
 
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Another thing people don’t seem to realise is that Apple will continue to promote and improve on this services. News outlets that aren’t available right now might end up joining later as they see the service gaining more traction and popularity.

Apple has the best customers, and is able to ensure that the news app is available on all their products.

Just look at Spotify vs Apple Music, where Apple is reported to have actually surpassed Spotify in countries like the US where they have a stronger iphone presence.

That’s the thing with Apple. They are committed to growing the service and making sure it works.

I really wouldn’t bet against them.
 
Abazigal said:
Just look at Spotify vs Apple Music, where Apple is reported to have actually surpassed Spotify in countries like the US where they have a stronger iphone presence.
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Interesting. How are they doing in Singapore?

Anecdotally, I still don't know a person in my circle or at work who uses Apple Music. The statistics seem pretty interesting.
 
ipponrg said:
Interesting. How are they doing in Singapore?

Anecdotally, I still don't know a person in my circle or at work who uses Apple Music. The statistics seem pretty interesting.
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Anecdotally, I see more people using Spotify than Apple Music.
 
ipponrg said:
What do you mean by this? I tether my credit cards to Apple Pay. Apple Pay isn’t a credit card
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You don't tether your credit cards, well not like you can tether your phone connection in a hotspot. A bank actually has to update their systems to enable Apple Pay, and pay Apple to enable their cards to be compatible with Apple Pay. And share a percentage of each transaction.
 
I can't believe the number is actually that high. Probably posting Apple employees who get it for free or a discount.
 
ipedro said:
Clearly “a flop”. :rolleyes:

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While it lacks the kind of polish I’d expect from Apple, the value is undeniable and it’s already become a part of my routine. Rather than browse for news on multiple sites, I pull up Apple News periodically and see what’s new from all my favourite sources in that one spot. The notifications on my Apple Watch are pretty great too.

I’ve also spent a lot time browsing through magazines like I would a paper mag, page by page, appreciating the graphic layout and even the ads (magazine advertising is truly an art form). I really think that Apple has a chance to revolutionize how we consume digital “print” publishing.

The app needs some work, however. Apple News+ feels bolted on, disconnected from the rest of the app. Certain important features are missing like saving a magazine article to read later like can be done in articles elsewhere in the app. There are also a bunch of bugs with downloaded magazines disappearing and not showing in “My Magazines” unless I actually start reading it.
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its 11-15-209 and there's an article on macrumors titled "apple news+ struggling to get new subscribers"
 
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