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I subscribe to the individual Apple One plan. I use it to watch a few things on Apple TV (Severance, Mythic Quest, etc) and stream music from Apple Music. I used to use Apple Arcade, but bought a PS5 a year ago and haven' t touched Apple Arcade since. I've never launched the news app and my subscription doesn't include fitness, which I wouldn't use anyway. I've never used Spotify, but now that I'm working out regularly again and streaming music, it's stunning how bad Apple Music is. I enter an artist I like and create a station, it will give me music that's nothing like the artist I enjoy. It'll play the same songs over and over, I will dislike a song and it'll keep appearing. Liking a song seems to have zero impact. How does Frank Ocean continually come on over and over and over again on a station created the The Bleachers? They sound nothing alike. (Frank Ocean is TERRIBLE, by the way). Anyway, that entire service needs an overhaul.

I was with you until this bit. 😭

By the way Apple were heavily involved in the rollout for Blonde by Frank Ocean it was a bit controversial at the time.
 
We subscribe to Apple One because to individually buy the few services we use and like costs more per month than the bundle price.

We need the extra iCloud storage because Mrs. JTK can’t stop taking pictures and can’t be bothered to delete old e-mails.

Apple Music is … meh. Nice to be able to seek out and listen to songs I don’t have in my library, but their curated playlists never work for me (no matter how many 💖 or 💔 I give), and their DJs can all pound sand.

Apple TV+ has potential, but as others have said, it has a few diamonds in a lot of rough. With FAM having jumped the shark / nuked the fridge / North Korea’d Mars midway through Season 3 (in typical Ronald D Moore style, but I digress), its days are numbered. Severance and Foundation are the life support that keep aTV+ going in our household.

Apple Fitness? No thanks, I go outside for my exercise (walking and cycling).

Apple Arcade? 99% lame. How about more games for grown-ups? Oregon Trail was a nice add, though.

Apple News? I still use RSS (remember when Steve Jobs built RSS into Safari?) because that remains a far better source for news I care about. And RSS doesn’t suggest garbage to you the way Apple News relentlessly does. Maybe if Apple News allowed RSS feeds I might use it more.
 
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Is there anything Apple still excels at these days besides coasting and pushing out minor updates across its product line? (Unless, of course, you count high-profile flops like the iCar and Vision Pro—seriously, what a mess.)
 
Is there anything Apple still excels at these days besides coasting and pushing out minor updates across its product line? (Unless, of course, you count high-profile flops like the iCar and Vision Pro—seriously, what a mess.)
Yes. I suspect massive resources are used for Emoji across the line. You can practically see the constant announcement that includes reference on updates and new Emoji type of crap....I mean it must be billions and billions spent on it.
 
Look, like it or not, interesting I think within the next few years I can see only four companies in the streaming business: Apple, Amazon, Disney and Netflix. I cite the following reasons:

1. Amazon can afford any losses due to the huge revenue from its online retail services.
2. Apple can afford any losses due to the huge revenue from iPhone, iPad, and Mac sales.
3. Disney will likely consolidate Disney+, Hulu and even ESPN into a singular streaming service with a massive library of new and old shows.
4. Netflix is by far the leader in streaming and as such has majority of revenue from streaming video.

Sadly, both Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global are too cash-strapped to continue their streaming services as is. I can see both paring down or even phasing out their streaming services, with most of the content going to be split between Apple, Amazon and Netflix. I can see WBD paring down MAX and turning it back in HBO MAX with an emphasis on mostly HBO shows.

In short, sure Apple TV+ may be losing US$1 billion per year, but that's a drop in the bucket given the yearly revenue of Apple and Apple's massive liquid asset reserves.
 
nintendo switch online give you hundreds of full games. okay, so they are classic ones, from their previous machines, but they are still complete games that will fill up hours. half the downloads on apple arcade seem like five minutes of fun and then you never play them again. they need to get some proper games on there
 
Look, like it or not, interesting I think within the next few years I can see only four companies in the streaming business: Apple, Amazon, Disney and Netflix. I cite the following reasons:

1. Amazon can afford any losses due to the huge revenue from its online retail services.
2. Apple can afford any losses due to the huge revenue from iPhone, iPad, and Mac sales.
3. Disney will likely consolidate Disney+, Hulu and even ESPN into a singular streaming service with a massive library of new and old shows.
4. Netflix is by far the leader in streaming and as such has majority of revenue from streaming video.

Sadly, both Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global are too cash-strapped to continue their streaming services as is. I can see both paring down or even phasing out their streaming services, with most of the content going to be split between Apple, Amazon and Netflix. I can see WBD paring down MAX and turning it back in HBO MAX with an emphasis on mostly HBO shows.

In short, sure Apple TV+ may be losing US$1 billion per year, but that's a drop in the bucket given the yearly revenue of Apple and Apple's massive liquid asset reserves.
So what is the upside to Apple to continue with Apple TV+, losing millions upon millions a year? They can't be selling much hardware to viewers who were not Apple customers before. I can't see it being a prestige product. Just a vanity toy for Cook?
 
And they don't make/sell what most people know as a TV. Great thinking in those product naming meetings :rolleyes:

The final boss of naming is still out there!

Apple TV+ in the Apple TV App on Apple TV running on Apple TV TV

Got it Got it ....Apple Apple Apple?

It's all so ridiculous that one would think The Onion came up with it.
 
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TV+ doesn’t need to be profitable on its own, it’s part of the overall ecosystem that keeps people buying devices. That’s why Apple is so eager to hand out the 3 month trials with new devices even when someone already had the trial before.

It’s the major advantage TV+ has over other streaming services and why it can’t really be compared to them.
 
TV+ doesn’t need to be profitable on its own, it’s part of the overall ecosystem that keeps people buying devices. That’s why Apple is so eager to hand out the 3 month trials with new devices even when someone already had the trial before.

It’s the major advantage TV+ has over other streaming services and why it can’t really be compared to them.
Surely you are not saying that people are buying a new iPhone or Mac or iPad in order to get 3 months of free Apple TV+ or just to be able to subscribe to the service?
 
TV+ doesn’t need to be profitable on its own, it’s part of the overall ecosystem that keeps people buying devices. That’s why Apple is so eager to hand out the 3 month trials with new devices even when someone already had the trial before.

It’s the major advantage TV+ has over other streaming services and why it can’t really be compared to them.

They are continuing to hand out trials because people aren't subscribing and they are desperate to try to juice it.

It's not a healthy sign to still be peppering everyone with free trials in attempts to get them hooked ... this isn't even remotely a new service at this point.

(same with the relentless Apple Music trials -- I stopped even bothering on those a couple years ago)
 
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TV+ doesn’t need to be profitable on its own, it’s part of the overall ecosystem that keeps people buying devices.

As a "normal sized phone defender", I'd like to modify this statement as follows:

TV+ iPhone Mini's don’t need to be as long as profitable on its own don't need to sell in huge numbers, it’s part of the overall ecosystem that keeps people buying devices subscribing to Apple Services.
 
Why can't we get a "Apple Membership" for $/£20 a month and we get ALL their services!

Plus added benefits of 10% off (or 10% back) Movie/TV purchases, 10% off Books, 1% off Hardware, 3% off accessories etc, blah blah blah.

'Added value' for not much cost to the would surely make them more profit and keep people subscribed for longer and to full bundles. I know it would keep me subscribed and keep me spending.

This current $/£5 a month for Apple TV+ that you can switch on and off each month clearly isn't working for them. It is great for a brand/quality point of view though.
 
I know if I saw £10 a month for one service or £20 a month for the lot, I would be an instant subscriber. The current options for Apple One just don't appeal and doesn't offer good value (even with the "savings" they state it offers)
 
Just subscribed again to appleplus and very disappointed. No 3rd season of foundation. Other shows that i read are so successful like the sci fi one about the civilization stuck in a sealed staircase! what a depressing storyline and waste of resources when there are fantastic stories out there never produced from classic writers like AE Van Vogt and others. Then theres 5x more shows you have to pay extra for than stuff you get for your monthly fee. Whoever put this package together is a dummy. Needless to say canceling my subscription after one month!
 
I really do like some of the shows on Apple TV, others are not bad but also not great. But for me there are not enough shows I like to continuously subscribe to the service. And I have a life beside watching shows, so time is an issue too. In general I do not like when shows are released one episode per week. At least not, when it is a show where the plot spans over all episodes. So I tend to watch a show when all episodes are available and so I subscribe only for a month or two when something interesting is available and I have the time to watch it.

And yes, I could afford to keep the subscription all the time and I did this at the time it was much cheaper, but now it is a question of principle.
 
Why can't we get a "Apple Membership" for $/£20 a month and we get ALL their services!

Plus added benefits of 10% off (or 10% back) Movie/TV purchases, 10% off Books, 1% off Hardware, 3% off accessories etc, blah blah blah.

'Added value' for not much cost to the would surely make them more profit and keep people subscribed for longer and to full bundles. I know it would keep me subscribed and keep me spending.

This current $/£5 a month for Apple TV+ that you can switch on and off each month clearly isn't working for them. It is great for a brand/quality point of view though.

The labels would not allow them to drop the price of Music too far. They are beholden to the majors if they pull their catalogue it is a wrap for a music streaming service

I know someone who used to work at one of the major labels and apparently a lot of people 'in the industry' think music streaming is very underpriced and some think it should be closer to £50/$50 per month!
 
Look, the big problem with many streaming services is that you need the revenue from other parts of the company to PAY for producing the content and operate the streaming service. That's a huge problem that Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global are running into really fast. And Comcast (who owns NBC Universal) and Disney aren't doing that much better, either, in supporting Peacock and Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+.

The question: how much financial savings Apple will get from phasing out Apple TV+ streaming? I think the savings may not be significant to Apple's bottom line.
 
Look, the big problem with many streaming services is that you need the revenue from other parts of the company to PAY for producing the content and operate the streaming service. That's a huge problem that Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global are running into really fast. And Comcast (who owns NBC Universal) and Disney aren't doing that much better, either, in supporting Peacock and Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+.

The question: how much financial savings Apple will get from phasing out Apple TV+ streaming? I think the savings may not be significant to Apple's bottom line.

Wouldn't they at least save 4.5B per year?
 
TV+ as a streaming outlet that consistently puts out quality TV shows is great. TV+ as a movie studio is very hit and miss. They got some confidence from CODA and chose to make big blockbuster plays which failed, which every movie studio does. The troubling trend is fewer movies, more limited series. I would not be surprised to see Apple scale their studio-produced movies back and go a more indie route. Services are all value-add. If they didn't have them people would be asking why Apple isn't playing in music, streaming video, sports, etc. Unless they are constantly hemorrhaging money and subscribers, which they are not, this is simply the cost of doing business.
 
Apple should continue TV+ to keep the TV/movie industry alive and have something to play on the screens in their Apple stores

Seriously, they make some good stuff. It's a good brand extension for them. Sort of like the Michelin guide.

$1B loss a year is nothing. People complain about bean counter Tim but get mad that something of value doesn't make money right away?

Be selective, but keep it up. They can eventually become like HBO Max
 
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