Next week on Monday, Apple will be holding “It’s Show Time” event at the Steve Jobs Theather in Apple Park. This will be Apple’s first event with the focus squarely on services. This means, there are not going to be any new hardware product announcements from Apple at the event. Instead, Apple will be talking about its upcoming video streaming and Apple News Magazines subscription services.
Apple has already gotten all the hardware product announcements out of the way by announcing them this week. The company announced one new hardware product every day of the week, starting from the new iPad Air and iPad mini 5 to the AirPods (2nd generation).
If you are out of the loop of recent Apple news and are wondering what Apple will announce at its ‘Show Time’ event on Monday, read our roundup below.
Video Streaming Service
Apple is taking on the big boys with its upcoming video streaming service. The company is launching a streaming service similar to Netflix, HBO Go, and others. Apple is primarily a tech company but with iPhone sales slowing down, it is looking to expand to other avenues.
Apple’s video streaming service ambitions are not to be taken lightly. The company has invested billions of dollars in producing original content for its showing and has hired top Hollywood stars and directors including Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and J J Abrams. The “It’s Show Time” event from Apple will also be attended by many high-profile Hollywood celebrities.
Despite the best efforts of Apple’s production team, when the company’s video streaming service launches, it will not go live with any of its original content. So, to still attract customers, Apple is partnering with third-party media houses like HBO and Starz to get content from them on its streaming service. It is unclear which production houses are onboard as of now, though Netflix has confirmed that it won’t be a part of Apple’s streaming efforts. This makes sense since Netflix will be competing with Apple’s video streaming service and while the former does not have as much money as Apple, it has been producing some solid content over the last few years which have even bagged prestigious Emmy awards.
To ensure that content from its streaming service can be easily viewed by users on any screen they like, Apple has expanded AirPlay 2 support to third-party TVs. At CES 2019, Samsung, LG, Vizio, and other TV makers announced AirPlay 2 support for their TVs. However, that still does not cover all the users — especially ones with older TVs — so it remains to be seen how Apple plans to overcome this problem. On Mac, Apple will likely point users to a website or use iTunes for streaming purposes, while iPhone and iPad users will likely rely on an updated Apple TV app for streaming content.
There are no rumors yet as to how much Apple wants to charge for its streaming service. It is possible that we will see Apple offer an Apple Music/video subscription bundle for a slightly lower price to attract existing Apple Music subscribers.
Apple News Magazines
Apple is also expected to unveil its all-you-can-eat magazines’ and newspaper subscription service at the Show Time event dubbed Apple News Magazines. The premise is simple. Users will pay a monthly fee — rumored to be $9.99/month — to gain access to hundreds of magazines and newspapers. Apple acquired Texture, an app with similar functionality last year, and it is building on that acquisition to bring this service.
Apple News is already incredibly popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other regions where it is available, so a magazine subscription service from Apple definitely has a high chance of meeting with success. However, Apple itself is creating an issue by keeping a 50 percent cut from the subscriptions for itself. This has led to a lot of publishers from backing out from the service, especially those which already offer their own subscription service.
As for others who have signed up, they are doing so in hopes that with Apple’s reach and marketing prowess, they will able to generate more revenue overall which would be enough to offset Apple’s 50 percent share. While WSJ is reported to have signed up for the service, the Washington Post is not keen on signing up for the service due to Apple’s terms and conditions.
What are your expectations from Apple’s ‘Show Time’ event? Are you looking forward to the company’s video streaming service? Or do you already subscribe to too many video streaming services and are considering giving Apple’s service a pass?
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