It's show time: Apple Special Event Summary
The first keynote that Apple held this year was called "It's show time". Everything was about digital services and Apple shone!
A total of four new services were presented by Apple, all of which will appear or have even appeared in 2019. In this post I will briefly summarize the event so that you get an overview of the various services.
Apple News +
Let's start directly with Apple News + . Apple News has over 5 billion readers per month, making it the world's most popular news app. With Apple News + Apple is adding a chargeable item to its news service.
Apple News + includes well-known magazines such as TIME, Vogue, Vanity Fair or the National Geographic magazine. Online editions of the Wall Street Journal or the Los Angeles Times are also included in the subscription.
Apple News + is free for the first month and then costs $ 9.99 / month. The magazines and newspapers can be read on the iPhone, iPad and Mac. The prerequisite for this is iOS 12.2 or macOS 10.14.4.
Apple TV +
Apple is entering the streaming industry with Apple TV + . In order to keep up with the big ones, Apple had to come up with something. Apple wants to score with Apple Original series and films from all genres.
So that the Apple Original programs are really worth watching, Apple Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abram, Oprah and many other greats in the film industry. Every "star" has his own show on Apple TV + and produces series, films or shows exclusively for Apple TV + .
Apple TV + comes as a subscription service in autumn. Apple has not yet revealed anything about the prices, but this will probably be between € 10 and € 20 per month.
Apple Arcade
Apple Arcade is a subscription service for games. Apple is going a different way than, for example, Google Stadia, which only allows online streaming of games on all devices . Apple Arcade allows the download of over 100 exclusive games (at the start of the service) so that you can play them offline anytime, anywhere.
There is no advertising for the games and there will be no in-app purchases. Another big advantage: with Apple Arcade you can start a game on the iPhone, then switch to Apple TV and continue playing there. However, if you later want to play on the Mac, this is also not a problem, since you can continue playing there with your last game status.
Apple Arcade will be available this fall. Apple has not given a price for this service either, but it will probably be between € 5 and € 20 per month.
Apple Card
With the Apple Card , Apple is introducing its own credit card. You can register for the Apple Card directly from your iOS device and there are no costs. After just a few moments, you have your Apple Card available in the Wallets app and can use it to make payments.
The highlight of the whole thing: there are no hidden costs - the Apple Card is completely free! There is also no reward program based on collected points, but for every purchase up to 3% is paid out as " Daily Cash " to your Apple Cash account.
The Apple Card will be available in the United States this summer. It is not yet known whether and when this will be available from us.
Conclusion on the Apple Special Event
For me, this keynote was once again one that convinced me for a long time. Little or nothing was known in advance and you can clearly see in which direction Apple is moving this year: subscription services. I expect that Apple will continue to expand this at the World Wide Developer Conference in June 2019 and that iOS 13 will be even more designed for subscriptions.