Is services really Apple's next big frontier?

[eseerc]

A hot topic regarding Apple's financials has been the growth of "service" revenue. This category consists primarily of App store and iTunes revenue. Some analysts are bullish on Apple due to growth of other underlying items that fit under services (Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Pay, etc)

Do you feel services are truly Apple's next big frontier (financially)? If so, do you feel an investment specifically in iCloud on the web is needed to move forward?

Apple's primary competitors in this space (Microsoft and Google) have much more robust options for their offerings on the web.

 

[anon(4697585)]

Do you feel services are truly Apple's next big frontier (financially)? If so, do you feel an investment specifically in iCloud on the web is needed to move forward?

Apple's primary competitors in this space (Microsoft and Google) have much more robust options for their offerings on the web.

Damn straight. At the moment I do not pay for iCloud but I most definitely would if they gave a web option.

Also, they need to be a little less greedy.
Google gives me unlimited space for my photos... if I'm gonna pay for iCloud I want more for my money. IE unlimited photo space but only 50gb for files etc.

I do however pay for Apple Music (family package) and I think this is a really competitive price.

Services is where it's at if you ask me.

 

[eseerc]

Damn straight. At the moment I do not pay for iCloud but I most definitely would if they gave a web option.

There is currently a web option, but it's very minimal. For me personally, Apple's service offering lacks a competent interface for iCloud email on the web and a more fully featured Photos experience.

Well... and pivot table support in Number

 

[anon(4697585)]

There is currently a web option, but it's very minimal. For me personally, Apple's service offering lacks a competent interface for iCloud email on the web and a more fully featured Photos experience.

Well... and pivot table support in Number

I'll rephrase... a better web option much like Dropbox

 

[Rene Ritchie]

Also, they need to be a little less greedy.
Google gives me unlimited space for my photos... if I'm gonna pay for iCloud I want more for my money. IE unlimited photo space but only 50gb for files etc.

Apple is charging you money. Google is charging you data and sometimes attention (ads). We're good at understanding the value of money (we see it leave our wallets and accounts) and time (we see the clock ticking away) but not data or attention. Maybe if the law forced companies to animate our private photos, financial data, health data, etc. being eaten by the cloud, we'd understand it better.

It's like being taken out on a date, bought a lobster dinner, and then being expected to repay the favor. Is that really free?

I think it'll take another decade or so before we really understand the cost of giving up all our private data to Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc. We think we're getting their services "for free" but really they should be paying us for the data. Data is among the most valuable things in the world. It's why they want it.

 

[cuttheredwire]

My hope is that services will expand. Apple is in a unique position where it has such broad hardware. They can provide services that are just as unique.

I really want a Google Apps alternative service. I would gladly pay to use a domain name with iCloud email. I also would love to see a simple web service too. They used to have iWeb, but I don't know anything about it.

Maybe that's just my pipe dream, but I also hope competing with existing services is low hanging fruit to Apple. We recently saw that in Notes, which is now an Evernote competitor, Apple Music, iCloud, etc. iWork for companies and families would be great.