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apple arcade

Today, Apple made some pretty big announcements, and I am going to run through those for you in this post. As you know, Apple pushed out their new hardware last week, which gave them the opportunity to really dig into the services that they want to offer in order to offset their costs and make money. Sure, the big question you probably has is why does Apple need to make more money? An iPhone runs at least $1,000 these days. But we are really starting to see a shift away from hardware as money making venture and into an area where its services that bring in the big bucks.

Apple TV Channels

One of Apple’s big announcements today was around the way that you watch TV. I’ve been saying for a while now that the way we consume media has changed, and maybe Apple was listening to me. Now, instead of just having a competition for another service (which they’re also doing) they are actually giving consumers a way to pick and choose the networks that you actually want to watch – built within their app. The selection includes traditional channels like CBS and Comedy Central, premium networks like HBO and Showtime, as well as online streaming services like Brit Box and Acorn TV.  How is this different? It seems more about organizing your streaming media, instead of giving us something completely new.

Apple TV+

While Apple TV channels will allow you to organize your content, it’s really the Apple TV+ that is the big announcement. This is also the one that will be the competition for Netflix because it’s all about original content. Senior VP, Eddy Cue describes Apple TV+ as the “home to some of the highest quality original storytelling that TV and movie lovers have not seen”. This sets the bar pretty high, but is it achievable? I mean, it is Apple so the sky is the limit. We’ve been hearing a lot about Apple buying content over the last year or so, but today’s event was kicked off with a video that featured some pretty big names like Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Octavia Spencer. Both Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston also showed up to talk about their new project, the Morning Show.

Apple Arcade

Apple is also pushing consumers deeper into the world of online gaming. Apple Arcade is being described as the “Netflix for games”, which lets users pay a monthly rate to play as many different games as they want. Of course, these are “participating” games, so what that means remains to be seen. That said, you will be able to play these games on your iPad, iPhone, Mac and even through your Apple TV. It will have more than 100 new and exclusive games, so that is significant. Apple Arcade will live inside the App Store as its own dedicated tab, rather than launching its own app. That seems kind of weird, so I’m definitely interested to see how this evolves.

All-in-all these are some pretty big announcements, but I would also suggest that these plans are very grandiose. I’m really supportive of Apple in their attempt to build new services, but I would hate to see this turn out to be another HomePod situation. This was all a great sneak-preview into what’s next for Apple and I am really excited to start seeing this roll out.

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