With iPhone sales slowing, Apple bets on video, gaming, news and a credit card

IT WAS NOTHING like Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone. But the 2-hour show on March twenty-fifth put on with the aid of Tim Cook, Jobs’s less histrionic successor as boss of Apple, may nevertheless be remembered as a milestone for the organisation—and the entertainment enterprise. Mr Cook did no longer announce the modern day sleek system. Instead, he unveiled a set of merchandise and services, which includes video streaming, information, video games and even a credit card. As theatre, it becomes underwhelming—celebrity-studded supporting solid along with Oprah Winfrey notwithstanding. As a business case, it appears more compelling.

Apple’s 900m iPhones global, extra than six times as many as Netflix has subscribers, supply it get admission to a massive capability target market. Analysts speculate that Apple will eventually provide them with a variation of Amazon Prime, in which clients pay a flat month-to-month fee for some combination of news, video games, cloud storage, music and video, and that can probably hook up with the employer’s iPhone subscriptions.

Mr Cook stopped brief of announcing a specific subscription carrier, promising instead to roll out five separate services, a number of that are merely old services in more excellent packaging. Together, they, however, threaten fellow tech giants, Hollywood and banks.