By
Godfrey Benjamin
March 22nd, 2024
It was expected that Apple’s Special Event would lead to sales increase and jump of shares’ price, but the effect was converse. The price decreased by 2 percent to $187,37 per share.
On Monday, Apple’s highly anticipated event took place at the Steve Jobs Theater. At the event attended by many celebrities, the company presented its new services, advertised its upgrades, and laid out a new vision for how to think about Apple. However, the event did not have an expected “wow-effect”, as after the presentation the Apple (AAPL) stock went down.
From Apple News and Card to Gaming and TV
The company opened the event with several major upgrades to existing apps and services and introduced a number of products.
The first service to be introduced by Apple is the magazine and news subscription. It is available now, and, in fact, it already existed under a different name. Named now Apple News+, the service provides access to 300 magazines and some additional digital news subscriptions for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), LA Times and the Toronto Star for $9.99 per month, with a free month trial. However, it is unclear whether the WSJ will be offering all of its content through the News+ service.
Publisher William Lewis said:
“WSJ members will continue to have exclusive access to the rich business reporting and analysis about which they are so passionate. Apple News+ introduces an entirely new category of readers who will have the opportunity to experience a specially curated collection of general interest news from The Wall Street Journal.”
Apple News+ will recommend articles and full magazines based on your history, with new posts downloaded automatically so that you can read them offline. The service will work on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac after users update their OS.
Next service introduced by Apple is Apple Card. As Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said, Apple Pay has great success, that’s why Apple is expanding it by offering its own credit card backed by Goldman Sachs and MasterCard.
The digital card will be available starting from summer and will appear in the iPhone’s Wallet app after users sign up. Moreover, Apple will also give its users physical cards made of titanium. The white card with a little Apple logo will not have a user’s name or credit card number for reasons of security.
It seems that the new Apple Card is a regular credit card. As for rewards, users are promised to get 3 percent cash back on Apple purchases (it is called Daily Cash), 2 percent on other purchases, and 1 percent on purchases made with the physical card. According to the company, there are no fees.
Further, Apple introduced Apple Arcade that will provide subscribers access to over 100 games that can be played across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. Arcade will be a new section of the App Store and obviously, it will require paying some fee. How much it will cost is unknown.
Then, Apple introduced its Apple TV+ that will work in the TV app for iOS and Apple TV, on the Mac via a forthcoming TV app this fall and on smart TVs that can now run Apple’s software.
Its programming includes Steven Spielberg’s ‘Amazing Stories’, ‘The Morning Show’ with Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carrell; show ‘See’ with Jason Momoa and Alfre Woodard, a show about immigrants and their children ‘Little America’, and two documentaries by Oprah Winfrey.
The service will be available this fall, with new programmes added each month. It is notable that Apple declined to comment on how much Apple TV+ would cost.
Apple’s Upgrades: Perverse Effect
It was expected that Apple’s Special Event would lead to sales increase and jump of shares’ price, but the effect was converse. The price decreased by 2 percent to $187,37 per share. At the same time, Roku, that has partnered with Apple, saw a 5-percent increase in price.
This year, Apple has already suffered some losses. In February, we reported that Apple got cut off from the multi-billion Chinese market. At that time, the company announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2019, and they were not very rosy. In February, Apple’s shares have lost 30% of its value compared to the company’s last earnings report made in November 2018.
With Apple’s Special Event, Tim Cook was planning to improve the situation and draw attention to new services. However, the presentation made users confused, as Apple was a kind of sparse on key details around its video and news services. The absence of services’ cost was also strange. Users can do nothing but wait until more details will be disclosed.