2019.03.25 AppleEvent, "its showtime"
From iGeek
2019.03.25 Apple Event - “its show time” - notes on what Apple announced
Intro
Apple Services
- Rainbow themed intro video (that looks like opening credits of movie/TV) that shows Apple products over the years [1]
- Showed Services as the 3rd leg of their business stool: Hardware + Software + Services
- Service (n): the action of helping someone or doing work for someone
- These include things like: iCloud, Siri, Maps, Pay, Messages, FaceTime, Find My iPhone, Music, Podcasts, Books, the App Store, and News
- Services need to be (1) easy to use (2) uncompromising attention to detail (3) keep your private info private/secure
News+
- News curated based on accuracy/interest not clickbait
- 5M views/month = #1 News App
- Magazines added to AppleNews (with better style/design capabilities)
- {insert inspirational video here}
Roger Rosner (VP of Applications) & Wyatt Mitchell (director of design for Apps)
- 300 Magazines
- {insert demo here}
- Shows LiveCovers (video clip behind cover photo)
- TOC
- Issue keeps typography/style — but reflows based on device
- Has Magazine discovery tab (App Store)
- Also knows your interest so can make suggestions based on topics
- Great for customers & Publishers
- Added LAT, WSJ, Canadian 30+ magazines (&Newspapers like the Star)
- How does privacy work? On device recommendations — not tracking of what you read, or allow advertisers to do that
- Cost: $9.99/month — it would be $8000/year to subscribe to all these publications
- Family sharing (everyone gets to read everything on it)
- Available: Today - U.S. & Canada (and French)
- Australia and UK later this year
- Demo: First month is free
Pay / Card
- 10B transaction in 2019
- 70% of merchants accepting it (in U.S.), 80% Canada, 80% EU, 85% UK, 85% Russia, 99% Oz
- 40+ Countries and revions (by end of year)
- Available to pay for public transit (Portland, Chicago, NYC later this year)
- Goals: Simple Applications, No fees, Lower Interest Rates, Clear rewards programs, Private and Secure
Card
- Jennifer Bailey (VP of Pay)
- “Healthier Financial Life”
- Sign up on iPhone - approval in minutes (not days)
- Wallet App improvements - including spending, payment due, direct texting support (through messages)
- Show transactions on maps and names you can recognize
- Categories (organized by color)
- Spending trends over time (to allow budgeting)
- Rewards
- Cash-back, daily. Hence, “Daily Cash” name.
- Can send it or spend it, immediately. (2% cashback on spending, 3% on Apple goods/services, 1% on physical card transactions)
- Shows payment options on purchase over time
- Allows more frequent payments (weekly / bi-weekly)
- No late fees, no annual fees, no international fees, no penalties
- Using Goldman (as bank) + Mastercard (as provider)
- {insert video of card here} = just making the card out titanium & name = etched.
- Security
- Because of biometerics, transaction hashes, and privacy around each transaction, it’s highly secure
- No card #, CCV, no signature or expiration on the card itself (all in wallet app)
- Available: Summer
- Interest rate: best in industry/class <- what is it? (I assume it floats based on credit score, but they didn’t explain that well)
Arcade
- Ann Thai (senior product marketing manager for the App Store)
- Games = App Store is Largest Gaming Platform in the World
- 1 Billion Download of games
- 300,000 games in store
- Free (or IAP) or Paid
- Subscription service for games: “world's first game subscription service for mobile, desktop, and living room”
- {insert design video here} = showed different game production houses talking about their designs.
- Beyond a steel sky, Where Cards Fall, Fantasian, Lifelike, Overland,
- Basics:
- All games are available for one subscription
- All you can play
- No ads or additional up-sells
- Can’t collect any data on you, without consent
- offline play
- iPhone, iPad, Mac, AppleTV — with transition/continuation
- Parental controls for screen time
- New Tab in App Store
- 100+ new and exclusive games
- {insert video here} = showed some of the game clips, in a very fast.
- Cost: TBD
- Family sharing
- Available: Fall, 150+ Countries and regions
TV App
- Peter Stern (VP of Services) & Cindy Lynn
- Movies + CableTV bundle (Network/Sports/News)
- tv channels
- New ad hoc channel picking option
- All-in-one app, on-demand, ad-free
- Online or offline (downloads)
- best picture and sound
- Family Sharing
- HBO, Stars, History, CBS access, etc —
- New Designed App
- {insert demo here}
- Shows curated list of things that are on
- “For You” that uses ML to show you what you might like
- Movies, Sports
- “Up next” (later watching)
- Looks like Amazon Prime App (but better categorization?)
- Kid friendly area
- iPhone, iPad, AppleTV (May)— and Mac coming (Fall)
- + Smart TV’s (Samsung, LG, Sony, Vizio, Roku, FireTV)
- Privacy: No info sharing
- Cost: TBD
- Family sharing
- Available: May for some updates, Fall release, 100+ Countries
TV+
- Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht
- Telling great stories
- {insert story video here} = directors/producers (Spielberg, Howard, Sofia Coppola, M. Nigh Shyamalan) talking about the importance of stories and their impact on people.
- Stars talking about their separate projects:
- Spielberg on stage talking about his SciFi show (resurrecting anthology: Amazing Stories) about a guy pulled into his future (our present)
- Reese Witherspoon & Jennifer Anniston & Steve Carrell talking about “the morning show” — pull back the curtain on the power dynamics between men and women in the high-stakes world of morning news shows
- Jason Mamoa and Alfre Woodard talked about their show - “See”, blindness is the new normal, and how it changed people’s perceptions
- Kumail Nanjiani - “Little America” stories about the America through the eyes of immigrants, and their normalcy
- Big Bird - Muppets talking about a show teaching computer coding to kids
- J. J. Abrams & Sara Bareilles - Little voices, a show about an aspiring musician
- Finale voice: Oprah - explaining why she’s working with Apple (in 1B pockets) to create positive change.
- 2 shows and a book club (where you can livestream with the authors)
- {insert intro commercial here} - lots of scenes from various stars and shows.
- Ad-free subscription, on-demand, on&offline, exclusive shows, anywhere the TV App is (iPhone, iPad, AppleTV, Mac, SmartTV’s)
- Cost: TBD
- Available: Fall, 100+ Countries