Good morning and welcome to the Steve Jobs Theatre.
As you can tell today's going to be a very different kind of event.
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Hey everyone I'm Shara Tibken and with C|net.
I'm here with Joan Solsman, we just got back from Apple event.
This was a very different one from what we usually have seen.
It was all about services which is why Joan our digital media reporter was there.
Joan what do you think was the biggest news.
Well we got news on the news front.
On payments, and the thing that we were all looking forward to hearing about, television.
We didn't really get any news on that.
We didn't have any answered questions.
We go to see all their stars, but we didn't get to hear about what and how we would actually Actually get to see these shows.
Yeah, it's really interesting like I thought they were going to have more of a Netflix type service, you know, they kind of have that.
But we don't really know, like we don't know pricing, we don't really know Know anything about it.
Besides, a lot of the people they're working with.
We know who they're working with and how excited those people are to be working with Apple,.
But we know that it's going to be coming, these shows that I talked about are going to come in the fall.
But we don't know exactly how we're going to see them.
How much we're gonna have to pay.
We do know that Apple TV, they're out there TV app is going to be now TV Plus and then we'll be able to you'll be able to sign up for other.
Networks, but we don't know how all the pieces fit together.
And this seems like the perfect opportunity to explain how the entire picture looks.
Yeah, yeah, so they had redone the TV app a while ago.
So the idea was kind of all your content was there, but that didn't really happen.
So it sounds like with the remodeled, kind of the The new Apple TV app that you can actually watch almost everything you want to except Netflix from that.
Except the biggest.
Yeah.
Video service on the planet.
Yeah.
Except for that one.
Yeah, except for that one.
I thought it was interesting that it's gonna be coming to non-Apple devices in terms of TV.
So they really talked about like.
Samsung, you know, even Roku and Amazon Fire TV is gonna be coming, too.
Yeah.
I thought it was notable though that they didn't really talk about like Android or Windows.
So it really seems like with their TV push, they're willing to open a little bit to other TV guys but not mobile.
Right.
And you know why they're not gonna open up to mobile?
Cuz iPhone is still their rainmaker, right?
Like, they're okay opening up to Roku.
Fire TV because it's not quite as threatening and previously, I mean, that's baby steps.
That's apple opening up a little bit.
It's a very, there's a very high walls on their garden.
They're lowering them a little, but not in mobile.
At least they're not talking about weather.
There not all happening mobile.
Yeah, yeah.
And then another big piece of news which I think ended up being the surprisingly really interesting part of the key note was Apple Card, their new credit card.
Yeah, I felt that was really interesting.
I mean, element, the thing that I think is most cool about it is the Titanium card.
[LAUGH] Yeah, they're design videos.
Yeah, all they needed was John the Eye talking about alluminium, but he couldn't.
He has to come on and talk about Titanium.
Yeah, what was Titanium?
[LAUGH]
I know, I know.
I'll be honest, that was the most interesting part of it to me.
But it is interesting the idea.
They wanna kinda put the apple spin On a credit card and on your financial health, making it simple, clear.
No fees.
No fees, putting that Apple shine onto something that hasn't had that kind of innovation.
Yeah, I mean, and even just the cash back.
I think if you buy things from Apple, it's 3% cash back.
So if you're Buying a $1000 iPhone.
That ca add up really fast, just to cash back.
Yeah, yeah.
And they also stress.
A nd I'm curious what consumer reaction will be to this idea that it's daily cash back.
Normally, they have credit cards with rewards, you have to wait til the end of the month.
I'm curious That's really something valuable to consumers.
And I'm also curious, they also talk about how this is real cash.
Yeah, a point system, yeah.
But I feel like people that are into points are into it and are hard core into it.
Yeah.
You are hard core into points?
Yes, I'm into miles, yeah.
So it will be interesting to see.
Yeah but I don't know, it could be like a thing where people, this is like their second credit card, or whatever it is, because we don't know.
The 'no fees' make it sound really attractive, and you know you're not going to get late fees and all of this, but you have to kind of wonder what their bar is for who they're going to give this credit card to.
Like if you have Bad credit.
They're probably.
And you don't have late fees.
Yeah, yeah, like, you know?
That sounds amazing.
Like, of course, you're gonna get that card.
But I would highly doubt that Goldman Sachs is gonna be like, yeah, give this card to everyone.
Right.
So we don't really know.
There's still I feel a lot of things that we don't exactly know about how this is gonna work.
Yeah, it'l be interesting to see.
What kind of credit levels you have to have in order to be worthy of the Titanium Apple credit card.
[LAUGH]
[LAUGH]
And then I think kind of the last, or one of the next big pieces of news was News, which you've mentioned.
So that was really pretty interesting.
And this was one thing, this was one of the few services that they actually talked about how much you would pay for it.
Yeah.
$10 a month, and you get all these magazine and other news-
Over 300.
Over 300, and some of them, Wall Street Journal is included.
That's something that far, if you were to subscribe just to the Journal?
That far outstrips, on a monthly basis, how much you would pay with a $10 subscription.
Yeah.
So there's obviously some value packed into that.
And that's where it also feels a little bit disappointing, we didn't get The opportunity to know what kind of value you would get from all these other flashy star-studded things.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that could add up really quickly.
They didn't talk about anything with bundling either.
Like for $25 a month, you get Apple News and all of these other things and then I think kind of our last big piece was gaming then right.
Yeah.
So they, that was something else they talked about we didn't really get pricing for it.
Right.
A new gaming service were you are going to be able to, you know for a montly fee or whatever you're going to get access to
All of these various games that are created for Apple.
Exclusive new games.
Exclusive new games for Apple.
Yeah, for Apple Arcade.
And this is coming right after last week, when Google announced Stadia, their streaming service.
There was even a little Google dig when they talked about how games would be available offline, which is, as a streaming service, Stadia can't Can't match.
So it'll be interesting.
One of the downsides to having exclusive new games is that you don't have a landmark game to draw people in.
If it's all new stuff and specialized stuff for this one service then you don't have something, you don't have that gateway drug, to have a game to bring people into the service.
I'm sure they'll find something though.
Yeah, they're Apple.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, anyway so that was all the news from the Apple event today.
Very different from the other events we've seen.
No hardware, all about services.
Thank you so much for tuning in, I'm Shara Tibken.
I'm Joan E.
Solsman.
Thank you.
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