Yes , this workweek ’s Apple upshot was n’t quite business as common for the fellowship . It was a tenacious presentation , constellate with A - list celebrities and announcements for service — no hardware in sight — that mostly are n’t ship yet , many of which do n’t even have toll point . That ’s not just the moves we ’ve come to expect from Apple .
But we were admonish upfront by Tim Cook that this time would be a little different , and the company has been banging the drum about bolstering its Services line of work for a few years now . So while there may have been some head - scratching about the execution of the event , there should n’t have been any shock about the overall role .
That enounce , though this event might have look unlike on the surface , fag a little deeply and you ’ll promptly realize that the more things switch , the more they remain the same . Because every single declaration Apple made is , at its base , about one affair :
Premium gaming has struggled against free-to-play games. Apple hopes to change that.
The Apple ecosystem .
Arcade fire sale
Apple has , in the past , struggled with play as a concept . The company is fond of saying that music is in its DNA , but that ’s never been the case with games . ( commemorate back in 1999 when Steve Jobs showed off that approaching Mac blockbuster statute title , Halo ? Yeah — it did n’t exactly go the way he expected . )
Premium play has struggled against destitute - to - frolic games . Apple hopes to change that .
Over the last several years , the big challenge Apple has front in gaming is the slide towards free - to - frolic games that either make user see advertizing or direct them towards in - app purchases . The latter might still bring in some John Cash for Apple , but even so , it scarcely mesh with the company ’s prestige figure of speech .
Premium gaming has struggled against free-to-play games. Apple hopes to change that.
Apple Arcade is Cupertino ’s root to that trouble . It help solidify iOS ’s standing as the preeminent nomadic gaming chopine by bringing in those types of high - class games that show off Apple ’s technology and that eviscerate in users . And by operate in exclusive — and helping fund developers ramp up these type of expensive game — Apple see that it has a firm flow of depicted object vouch to fulfill and entice iOS exploiter , and making sure they wo n’t be off looking elsewhere for their peregrine gaming fix .
Credit where credit is due
While the announcement of the Apple - branded credit rating bill was leaked well beforehand of the event , the inside information reveal during the intro make its contribution to the Apple ecosystem pretty obvious .
first off , and most importantly , theApple Cardincentivizes customers to use Apple Pay ; though a physical card will be provided , its cashback reward is only 1 percent , compared to the 2 pct offer by using Apple Pay . By tie user more closely into Apple Pay , Apple not only gets to advance even broader adoption of its defrayment standard , but also gets an even better tax return on whatever it ’s getting from the service of process . ( Presuming , of course , that Apple gets a serious deal from Goldman Sachs and MasterCard than third - party cards do , which seems likely . )
surely , there ’s a physical card . But Apple Card is all about Apple Pay .
Sure, there’s a physical card. But Apple Card is all about Apple Pay.
Even more obviously , the 3 - percent cashback on purchases from Apple itself helps incentivize use of the card for the iTunes Store , iCloud subscription , apps , Modern iPhones , and so on . There ’s nothing newfangled here , of course — plenty of other retailers offer similar welfare for using their own co - branded calling card . As the old commercial enterprise byword endure , “ the more you spend , the more you save . ” Which is great for consumer looking for rewards , but let ’s not forget that it ’s predicated on spending more — in this cause , inside Apple ’s ecosystem .
Channels surfing
When Apple roll out the video app a couple years back , it did so with the plan to provide a fundamental clearinghouse for all of the content you look out on its set - top box seat . That was not only a dear move from a useableness standpoint , but a boon for Apple , since it efficaciously wed users more intimately to its own software rather than that of third party . But still , when you in reality become to take in the content , you got kicked out to the video provider ’s app .
Stay inside the TV app … stay incessantly !
With the newChannelsstrategy that Apple announced this calendar week , users will potentially be draw even tighter to the telly app . Taking a page from the playbooks of competitors like Roku and Amazon , Apple has now become not only the central clearinghouse , but the provider of that content as well . Now you’re able to pledge to and view video from other web without having to interact with their payment systems or even their apps .
Stay inside the TV app…stay forever!
The sales talk is : There ’s little cause to leave the TV app for any stragglers that might be outside of it . ( Netflix ? What ’s Netflix ? ) And while you ’re there , Apple will be all too happy to sell you onits own original contentedness , which will no doubt get its own striking placement among the myriad of offering .
Hotel Cupertino, California
Apple is , in many ways , like a very fancy lavishness hotel with all the amenities . There ’s a restaurant , a fitness social club , bars , spas , and for anything else you might require , a permeating and attentive faculty to aid you . This calendar week ’s announcements have ratcheted up those perk , supply even more reason to stay in the satiny , comfy ecosystem . Basically , it ’s the most comfortable version of the Hotel California you ’ll ever witness . So , really , why ever leave ?
