Apple has done very well financially under Tim Cook, but the company’s hardware is starting to lose its luster. iPhone sales are down, and the Mac line continues to be a confused mess —
Apple has done very well financially under Tim Cook, but the company’s hardware is starting to lose its luster. iPhone sales are down, and the Mac line continues to be a confused mess — “Flexgate” and an unreliable keyboard plague the once great MacBook Pro. We still don’t have the promised new Mac Pro, and AirPower is missing in action too. While Apple Watch and AirPods are successful, I still hate them both — the former has a terrible user interface, while the latter can hurt some users’ ears (including mine). Quite frankly, I suspect most folks simply use Airpods and Watch as status symbols and for fashion — their staying power may be limited.
So now, Apple is trying to pivot to services, and that’s a very good idea. The problem? Its News+ service is lacking key news sources, such as The New York Times, for instance, while Apple TV+ looks to be a pricey aggregate of premium channels and Apple original content, which will probably be lame. Ultimately, I don’t envision News+ or TV+ being successful. Thankfully, Tim Cook and company seemingly got one thing right today, Apple Arcade — an upcoming video game subscription service for iOS, macOS, and Apple TV which will offer access to more than 100 premium games.
