Did A Cultural Shift In Consumption Help Apple Surpass 1 Billion Paid Subscriptions?

Forbes Business Hollywood & Entertainment Did A Cultural Shift In Consumption Help Apple Surpass 1 Billion Paid Subscriptions? Jacqueline Schneider Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Writing about the intersection of music, technology and culture. Following Aug 3, 2023, 07:40pm EDT | Press play to listen to this article! Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Apple CEO Tim Cook attends Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show” world premiere in New York City.

Roy . . .

[+] Rochlin for WireImage. WireImage Apple’s third quarter 2023 earnings show signs of stall-out for its iPhone hero product while the services business picks up the slack–pointing to an interesting shift in the culture of consumption. In a new milestone for the company, Apple surpassed 1 billion paid subscriptions, adding 150 million subscriptions in the last 12 months.

“We think the situation will continue to improve as we get through September and that’s very positive,” said Apple’s Chief Financial Officer, Luca Maestri, on Apple’s earnings call today. “This is not only good for financial results, but it shows a high level of engagement of customers in the ecosystem. ” Apple’s sales were down 1.

4% from the prior year, coming in at $81. 8 billion for the quarter ending in July, while posting $19. 9 billion in net income.

As Apple’s revenues declined because of a slowdown in device demand from consumers, a silver lining in steady sales from emerging markets and growth in the services business were noted by Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook on the call. Excitement around new product features and original content were strategic talking points for the services business portion of the earnings call touting Apple TV+’s 54 Emmy Award nominations across 13 Apple Original titles and Apple Music’s new discovery features for live music to include venue guides and set lists “with more updates on the way to make services more powerful and useful. ” Doubling from three years ago, Apple’s paid subscriber base represents a population ripe for content consumption.

“We’re focused on original content with [Apple] TV+,” said Cook. In a play to attract talent and provoke thought, Cook suggests “giving great storytellers the venue to tell great stories will hopefully get us all to think a little deeper. ” MORE FOR YOU New Apple Exclusive Reveals iPhone 15 Release Surprise ‘Reload Faster!’ Go Inside A Russian T-62 Tank On The Ukraine Front Line California s York Fire Spreads Over 94 000 Acres Biggest This Year In Golden State Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Apple’s business started with devices and while that portion of the business may be having a slight dip at the moment, growth in the services arm demonstrates a wider shift in consumer culture, consumption and loyalty.

Revenue in Apple’s services unit reached a high of $21 billion and include cloud services, Apple Card and Apple Pay, streaming music and TV products. These services are cultural products in that they are incorporated into daily life, utilized and enjoyed for convenience, entertainment, and provide some level of connection to oneself or a wider community. For the average consumer, cloud services create a level of security to store contacts, images and other digital records and artifacts.

Products like Apple Card and Apple Pay dominate point of sale systems in the name of convenience to the point where many people now leave home without their wallet in exchange for the ease of use of an iPhone to transact. Music and TV are the ultimate markers of culture, translating layered nuances of groups during a specific epoch through sound, storytelling and visual art. As an arbiter of culture, Apple has parlayed a unique brand of digital devices into handheld items of convenience, story and connection.

In line with the company’s vision for growing the business through content, Apple’s “biggest opportunity is offering better content and more content over time,” said Maestri, “we’ll be able to attract more of them as paid customers. ” Follow me on Twitter . Jacqueline Schneider Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.