Apple’s Services business continues to rake in billions of dollars each quarter, with the App Store alone setting a new single-day spending record of over $540 million on New Year’s Day, according to the company. Some of the paid services from the company include offerings such as Apple Fitness+, Apple TV+ and Apple News+, but the next set of Apple services “may be hiding in plain sight”, according to Loup Ventures analyst Andrew Murphy.
Bolstering the Services business
In his research note, seen by AppleInsider, the analyst has proposed that the iPhone maker expand the Services segment by introducing several additional offerings in form of paid versions of Stocks, Mail, Podcasts, Health and even Maps.
The recent acceleration in Services growth is indicative of an acceleration in a much broader digital transformation. Apple is powering this transformation around the world, changing how we live, work and play. New services will make Apple’s impact on our lives even deeper and broader, capturing value in new ways and driving the company toward a $3 trillion market cap.
Wait a second, wouldn’t piling new paid offerings on top of existing ones attract additional scrutiny from antitrust regulators in the United States and possibly elsewhere?
Probably, yes, but the analyst proposes that Apple could address any concerns that government watchdogs might have by making additional refinements to its Services model.
Mail+, Stocks+, Health+ and more
Loup Ventures envisions a bunch of new premium Apple services:
- Podcasts+:Â Original shows and premium content could serve as catalysts for the paid Podcasts subscription while adding “unique value to the suite of Apple audio services”.
- Mail+: A paid Mail service would help boost your productivity with premium features that could aid in inbox management, scheduling and automating other daily tasks.
- Maps+:Â Murphy envisions a monetization path for Maps service via a new platform that would suggest “the best destination based on your desired outcome.”
- Stocks+: Apple could offer premium trading services or robo-advisory services like existing platforms Robinhood and Wealthfront.
- Health+: Apple’s commitment to health technologies could in the future help it create a telehealth or digital medicine platform.
With these proposed services, Apple could increase the stickiness of its ecosystem, boost its value proposition and give people more additional content.
Shut up and take my money! Or not.
I most definitely wouldn’t be interested in a premium Mail+ or Podcasts+ subscription at all. That’s because I hate email with passion and I rarely listen to podcasts. But something along the lines of Stocks+ and Health+ would address my interests, especially Stocks+.
I started to dabble in stock investing last year so I’ve become a regular user of Apple’s preinstalled Stocks app. It’s pretty nice, but one could imagine a Stocks+ subscription offering much larger sets of data than Stocks, including a bunch of new metrics, charts and historic data currently unavailable in the Stocks app. There’s no doubt that Apple is enjoying great success with the Services business and I think they’d be wise to look to additional offerings.