so it's been a fresh Apple event
turns out Apple is shifting gears a
little bit they're moving into services
in a big way they want some more of your
money can you blame them I can't that's
kind of what they do they're a business
after all but for you for a long time
the focus has been solely on the
hardware at least mostly on the hardware
you buy an iPhone you buy a MacBook you
buy an iPad and they leave you alone we
all know the smartphone marketplace it
slowed down a little bit it's a little
bit less red-hot compared to what it
used to be and so because there was
speculation for a while that Apple was
gonna diversify its product offerings in
the form of services and that's what
this event was all about Apple wants you
to subscribe to a billion things
starting with Apple news plus I love the
feeling of being at the newsstand is
that that's the thing right with the
magazines we're bringing magazines to
Apple news newsstand I really last time
I read a magazine I don't know about you
but I guess they want to participate in
this throwback they want to boost up
some of those traditional brand names in
news and magazines and some of these
have their own subscription fees
previously associated with them they're
trying to put it all in one place so you
have this news plus subscription you pay
them $10 a month if here's a bit odd to
me because obviously so much of our
consumption now it happens on the
internet on the on the relatively open
Internet with the exception of a few
locations a few sources like the New
York Times you pay some money for that
to get past the pay wall but nonetheless
Apple is dipping their toe in the news
Plus pond river stream and they're
looking for 10 bucks a month but that's
just the start of it it doesn't end
there
okay Beyond News plus they're gonna get
into your finances as well so they got
your news now they're your bank that's
kind of weird
well not exactly your bank your credit
card I should say they launched
something called Apple card and to me
this is probably the most interesting
thing they announced as far as the
services are concerned because you know
cards for the most part not not a
particularly innovative segment or
product category well Apple has this
card that's integrated with Apple pay
even though it will be a physical card
as well which is gonna give you cash
back on purchases allow you to track and
see graphs of your spending and
supposedly authorize you for access to
this credit card within moments right on
your smartphone if you're unfamiliar
with the finances business banking and
so on credit cards they earn money
through interest through you carrying a
balance through the creation of debt
that's how the business operates so the
way I envision this now is that Apple
they can create a bunch of debt right in
the store in the Apple Store you could
be there it's like I really like that
new laptop and they're like you know
what you don't need to pay for this
today we'll give you the Apple card all
right pay for it later no problemo
3% cashback why would you not use our
card I imagine a tremendous amount of
debt creation through this particular
product not that there's anything wrong
with that
well like let's not get it twisted Apple
has an agenda here it's a money-making
proposition and this is going to
generate revenue for them in the form of
interest payment next up they're gonna
continue into the gaming realm Apple has
their own service here called arcade
which does appear to be a type of
Netflix for gaming these are mobile
games by the looks of it though your
subscription will grant you access to
100 titles which you can then download
play offline if you want to and across
multiple devices but they are mobile
oriented games they work on iPad iPhone
and then the Mac sort of seems like an
afterthought this is going to come down
to the games because they're not
triple-a titles it's not assassin's
creed or doom or anything like that if
the games are good the service is gonna
be good they did not announce a price
but if there's some compelling titles in
there I could see this being popular for
a certain subset of casual gamers but
it's different than stadia in a sense
it's not going after the next degree of
gamer those looking for the triple-a
titles all right next up things start to
get confusing at this point in a
presentation because we're talking about
the TV product Apple TV which
is an actual product it's a box you can
put under your TV that's called an Apple
TV
then there's the app Apple TV and then
there's Apple TV Plus which is kind of
like an app within the app so Apple
wants Apple TV the app to be your kind
of hub for all your entertainment they
built it into some Smart TVs to get you
started but of course it'll also operate
on all of your Apple devices whether
it's the phone the iPad and even on the
back actually for the first time so this
is like an amalgamation of your cable
subscriptions your independent
subscriptions to channels like HBO and
then Apple specific content like TV plus
if you choose to add that as well
they're even gonna make the Apple TV app
available for fire TV and Roku so they
really want you to use this thing
they're blasting it everywhere all right
now next up things get wild they just
exist I don't even know how to describe
what happened next within the keynote
they just sort of my marching
celebrities out lights on lights off Tim
Cook Celebrity Big Bird it was
unpredictable it was very bizarre almost
like endorsements like hey we're
attached to Steven Spielberg
we got Reese Witherspoon that's Jennifer
Aniston we're Apple things are happening
by the way here's Oprah like it was they
told you I guess what this shows they
were working on we're gonna be like but
there were no trailers no teasers at
least not comprehensive ones to showcase
what they've been working on presumably
Apple is spending a boatload of cash to
get into the content business similar to
something like Netflix now I'm skeptical
of what they're gonna be able to achieve
here especially since they didn't talk
about a cost in this case as well like
how much can you really charge for these
Apple originals what are people willing
to pay it's gonna be ad free
subscription service exclusive Apple
originals available in a hundred plus
countries and coming in the fall let's
do a quick breakdown why does this
matter what is Apple trying to do here
well I talked earlier about the fact
that you know phone sales in general
smartphone sales tax
sails and so on they've kind of
stagnated a little bit and as a company
like Apple matures they you know they
got to figure out new ways to profit the
companies they're up against like Amazon
Google and so on are really diversified
now Apple has the hardware piece fairly
well figured out so how can they just
plug in some new monetization streams if
they've already got $1,000 phone in your
pocket well why not get your credit card
why not get your content subscripts I
mean if we're talking about having each
one of these subscriptions from Apple
like what is your monthly fee looking
like you got iCloud you got news plus
you got TV plus and they still expect
you to have the Hulu and Amazon Prime
subscription when they show cased the
regular Apple TV app it's like wow it's
getting out of hand here
I don't know how many people are
prepared for all of these subscriptions
Tim Cook's trying to print some money
they want all your money if you got any
left over at the end of the month
Apple will happily take it let me ask
you a question are you are you walking
in are you marching into an Apple store
to get an Apple credit card to buy an
Apple MacBook is that you or are you uh
are you a little bit nervous here or are
you a little bit skeptical are you sick
of subscriptions are you done with it
are you like Lou I'm already subscribed
out of control here I got to cut back on
my subscriptions not add more I mean
think about it right now you could have
YouTube premium you could have Netflix
you could have a wide variety of
subscriptions as it stands and Apple
seems to want a dozen more so you tell
me
subscription fatigue do you feel it or
are you up for a couple more let me know
in the comments