Australians Snubbed As Apple Roll Out -‘Sort Of’ -Media & Video Subs Service

As Apple struggle to grow iPhone, iPad and MacBook sales the Company has chosen to head in a new direction with the roll out of a new video and magazine and news service.

Now Apple is going after the delivery of content to Android devices as well as their own with a growing ambition to go beyond selling its own gadgets.

The Wall Street Journal said that the new service ‘thrusts the tech giant into a rapidly intensifying competition among technology companies and traditional pay TV and free to air operators.

The new services will span entertainment, financial services, news and videogames with analysts now tipping a head to head battle with Google who last week announced a cloud-based gaming platform called Stadia.

Released in May with an update to the struggling Apple TV box which Apple are now hoping will become a central home entertainment portal. The only problem is that it appears that the content is set to be limited in, but it will include shows from Showtime, Starz and others.

Seen as a challenger to Netflix the US9.99 (A$14) service appears to be USA centric Apple only showed footage from only some new shows, from Hollywood partners including Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and “Game of Thrones” actor Jason Momoa.

They also discussed new series such as a reboot of the 1980s anthology “Amazing Stories,” a series about a morning talk-show, and a drama about a world where everyone is blind.

In unveiling Apple’s original programming plans, Chief Executive Tim Cook said Apple “can contribute something important to our culture and society with our storytelling.”

Recently he was accused of interfering in production of Apple content to avoid violence or items of a “sexual” nature.

Cook is ramping up its services in an effort to generate revenue growth as iPhone sales fall and major stores such as Myer dump Apple products from their stores.

It’s also been revealed that the Goldman Sachs Group has worked with Apple to develop a new credit card/

After moving into financial services with Apple Pay, customers will now be able to sign up for the Apple Card on their iPhones and begin using it for purchases within days, the company said.

It will offer 2% cash back on purchases and uses machine-learning on Apple’s devices to organize people’s spending behaviour into weekly and monthly summaries. At this stage the service will not be launched in Australia.

On top of the limited video service Apple has launched Apple News+, which they are describing as a is a premium version of the existing, free Apple News app that will be priced at US $9.99 a month. It will not be available in Australia till later this year and is at this stage more about US publications than Australian.

It provides access to articles from more than 300 magazines including Vogue, GQ and Sports Illustrated, as well as newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.

Apple secured the rights to the titles available in News+ for at least five years and up to 20 years through last year’s acquisition of the app Texture, which was created by US publishers last year.

The Australian press release put out by Apple Australia notes that the service will not be available in the UK and Australia. ChannelNews understands that Apple are still trying to get Australian media Companies to sign up to the service.

A big sticking point is that Apple wants to take 50% of the revenue from the service.