Apple's Eddy Cue reorganizes services: more focus on streaming and advertising

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More emphasis on streaming and advertising

Apple has focused strongly on services in recent years, and it shows in the quarterly figures: every three months, revenue from services is increasing. It's a steady and secure stream of income, which is less dependent on seasonality and sales spikes, as with the iPhone. CEO Eddy Cue has now started a restructuring of his divisions, with an emphasis on streaming and advertising. As a result, there have been some shifts. For example, Todd Teresi (ads) will report directly to Cue from now on, because Apple's advertising business is now so large that it can stand on its own. At the same time, Peter Stern will have more elbow room to focus on video, news, books, iCloud, Fitness+ and Apple One.

It doesn't necessarily mean you'll see a lot more advertising. Apple currently limits ads to a few places: for example, when you search for apps, you'll see ads for similar apps in the App Store. There is also a lot of advertising for its own services, such as Apple Arcade and series on TV+.

Last quarter, services generated $20 billion in revenue, compared to $17 billion a year ago. These include iCloud, Fitness+, News+, Apple Music, Apple Care+, Apple Arcade, Apple Pay, Apple TV+ and the App Store.

More deals for (US) sports games

In terms of streaming, Apple recently took an important step by signing a deal with Major League Baseball. Recently, in some countries you can watch Friday Night Baseball, in other words two baseball games on Friday evening. Apple is also rumored to be offering NFL's Sunday Ticket and NBA games. Watching sports is a popular hobby for Americans and these deals can attract new viewers to Apple TV+. It again attracts a very different audience than the content seen on Apple TV+. Unfortunately, the attention is very much focused on American sports and we should not expect Formula 1 or major football tournaments for the time being.

In addition, Apple wants to offer new services. There's talk of a hardware subscription service, a 'Buy now, pay later' option for Apple Pay, and a kind of food delivery service where you can enter your food data directly into the Health app.