Apple may be seeking new ideas to boost services income

Apple may have tasked all its teams to seek out business propositions to offer as a service

Apple’s focus on services continues to resonate across the company, which seems to have tasked all its teams to seek out business propositions to offer as a service. The best recent evidence of that claim being the introduction of Apple Business Essentials, but more services are on the way, weekend reports claim.

Apple-as-a-service

Mark Gurman at Bloomberg repeats ongoing speculation Apple intends expanding its iPhone subscription program, potentially offering Macs and other devices on a subscription basis. He also repeats claims the company is indeed considering the introduction of ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ services.

We’ve heard lots of speculation around both plans in recent months, and Gurman now tells us we may expect both schemes at some point this year. While he isn’t clear precisely when this year, continued momentum around Apple’s payment services hints at expeditious plans on the part of the company. Not least around Apple Cash and Apple Card.

The writer suggests hardware subscriptions could be made available by the end of the year. Maybe.

But it appears Apple has a few other services proposals to explore.

The Apple gig (economy)

The report claims Apple has at least explored form of grocery delivery and pickup service, defined as being a little like Instacart. That service lets you order items from a variety of retailers for fast delivery or pickup. Apple’s approach to this highly competitive space is to integrate the service with Apple Health to provide accurate nutrition tracking, though Gurman doesn’t seem convinced this will be introduced.

The report also says, “There are a few new Apple services in development”.

What’s interesting about that phraseology is the built-in implication that the company may be exploring additional services also.

What can Apple do?

I think this is highly probable and currently believe every Apple business unit has been asked to identify and explore the provision of new services.

To achieve this, the company will be focusing on user experiences and sentiment analysis to identify those spaces in which what it offers already can be maximized.

I can’t help but wonder if the company has plans to extend Shazam integration with Bandsintown and other ticketing agencies to turn Apple Music into a place to learn about and listen to music, but also a forum for gig tickets and artist merchandising (and probably exclusive streamed shows). I seem to recall this is something that has been speculated about in the past.

I imagine Apple’s continued work in health and off-on speculation pertaining to the potential launch of some form of health provision service (likely focused on remote patient monitoring and care) also sits on the road map for future service provision.

Loup Ventures has previously suggested other additions, including stock purchasing in Stocks+, Podcasts+ and other services.

Why it matters

A move to services and subscription makes complete sense for Apple currently. Economic challenges, the end of peace in our time, supply chain crisis, environmental collapse and the ongoing pandemic mean major structural change is necessary, and services, rather than hardware, will likely drive the next few decades.

Apple is simply working to give itself a head start in this transition.

It seems to be making ground– at present its services business is already bigger than IBM and revenue continues to increase.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

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