Apple continues to develop its services

Ten post dostępny jest także w języku: polski

This week, Apple announced its plans to develop OTT services (Apple TV+), information aggregator (Apple News+), roaming (Apple Arcade) and financial services (Apple Card). Apple TV+ and Apple Card definitely attract the most attention. Apple TV+ service will appear in over 100 countries, including Poland, in autumn 2019. Apple announced that the service will not be limited to the presentation of content related only to the American market. The Polish website of Apple has already featured information about Apple TV+ service with films and programmes created especially for this service. The American producer announces cable TV “with unique premium channels, the most popular streaming services and over 100,000 films to buy or rent”.

This may indeed suggest that local productions will also be available, and Apple’s plans for the financial market are also impressive. The manufacturer announced the introduction of its own payment card, Apple Card, in Q3 2019. It is a credit card (physical and virtual), with which Apple’s partner is Goldman Sachs and the Mastercard chain. The Group intends to win customers with no commission, a loyalty programme and additional financial services, including benefits consisting in refunding part of the purchase fees (cash back). In addition, security and privacy issues are strongly emphasised. An unquestionable advantage is also the automatic integration with the Apple Portfolio, which is a real convenience for iPhone owners. The card will be available only on the American market. However, it is already known that the payment application itself will be available in another 40 countries.

Taking into account that Poland is one of the European leaders in electronic payments and modern banking services, it is possible that the card will also appear on the Polish market. Apple also announced the launch of Arcade, a paid service with access to games for iPhone, iPad, Macbook and iMac. It is a continuation of the concept of the American manufacturer, which set itself the goal of developing mobile games and the industry based on a paid, fully professional production model. However, it is now a niche that Apple plans to develop, which will certainly be a challenge. The commercial success of mobile games is based on the Free2Play model, microtransactions and advertisements, which is the goal of Google Play and Android. However, Apple’s goal may be to create larger exclusive productions and try to monetize them using a new device (e.g. a console). Arcade is to be available in over 150 countries, including Poland, in autumn.