A little over 12 years ago, Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone and revolutionized the world of mobile computing. During the most recent Apple keynote event, the focus was not on a new iPhone, iPad, or iMac. It was all about content.
The iPhone fueled the momentum that made Apple the first trillion-dollar company in the summer of 2018. Over the following year, however, Apple saw sales of the iPhone slow, forcing CEO Tim Cook to look for new ways to generate revenue.
Instead of a stage dominated by a new piece of hardware, Apple relied on entertainment heavyweights like Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell to promote Apple’s venture into the world of original programming and subscription services, called Apple TV+. The company also introduced news and gaming subscription services.
So what’s the secret for Apple? What will it do differently than HBO, Amazon, or Netflix? It likely rests on the worldwide ownership of over 1.3 billion Apple devices and the likelihood that many of them will want the immersive experience of streaming entertainment in the Apple ecosphere outside renting or buying movies and television shows.
Apple Music boasts nearly 60 million subscribers, so it is not out of the realm of possibility for Apple to succeed in providing subscription-based news, gaming, and entertainment.
The question is whether it’s too late to find a niche in the streaming entertainment marketplace. Netflix is approaching nearly 150 million subscribers, and Amazon flexes the muscle of Prime to boast 100 million subscribers. With Disney’s acquisition of Fox, it’s promised online service will have a significant amount of content.
When a company becomes as successful as Apple, people anxiously await failure, and when it comes to subscription content, Apple’s strength remains in the arena of music. It won’t be the price point that determines success or failure. Critics said no one would pay 99 cents to download a song when Apple launched iTunes. They were wrong. When the company started Apple Music, people said it couldn’t compete with Spotify. Apple now has more U.S. paying subscribers than Spotify.
Original content is a whole new matter. But when you have Spielberg and J.J. Abrams on board and more than a billion device owners around the world, it’s a worthy risk for Apple to take. And it might just change the way Americans watch TV forever.
