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Apple launches App Store, Music, Arcade, Podcasts, and iCloud in new countries

Apple officially expanded the reach of its services offerings today, bringing key content businesses to more countries.

The expansion sees the App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Podcasts, and iCloud launch in 20 new countries. Meanwhile, Apple Music debuts in a total of 72 new markets. Users signing up to the Apple Music free trial in 52 of the new countries will be able to use the service for free for six months, compared to the usual three-month trial offers.


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Jason Snell’s Six Colors annual Apple report card: Wearables ace it, software quality needs summer school

Jason Snell has published his annual Six Colors report card covering Apple’s 2019 performance, and this year it includes responses from me and my 9to5Mac colleague Benjamin Mayo. Go read it now and come back!

Final grades are based on ratings from 65 participants that Jason describes as “writers, editors, developers, podcasters, and other people who spend an awful lot of time thinking about Apple.” Apple’s Wearables category ranks highest (4.6/5) while Software Quality and Apple TV tie for worst (2.7/5).


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Apple tells government antitrust committee that it does not make a profit from repair services

Huawei says Chinese retaliation against Apple would be wrong

A judiciary committee in July asked questions surrounding antitrust and competition concerns of big tech. The documentation from those hearings has now been released.

Apple addressed its policies on the App Store, competition in markets where Apple offers first-party apps, disallowing alternative browser engines, among other topics. On the subject of Apple’s role in the repair industry, the company said that the ‘cost of providing repair services has exceeded the revenue generated by repairs’, implying it does not tightly control repairs for financial gain.


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iPhone XR nearly half of recent US iPhone sales ahead of iPhone 11 launch

iPhone XR

CIRP has released a new report today with its estimates for how well each iPhone model sold during Apple’s Q3 (calendar Q2). In addition to the iPhone XR being far and away the most popular iPhone in the US ahead of the upcoming iPhone 11 launch, the firm has data on how well Apple’s Services are doing with iPhone owners.


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100M subs ‘a realistic medium-term goal’ for Apple’s streaming video service, says analyst

Apple’s streaming video service could generate 100M subs

A couple of weeks before Apple announces its long-awaited streaming video service, a firm of analysts has suggested that 100M subscriptions could be ‘a realistic medium-term goal’ for the company. This compares to the roughly 150M Netflix subscribers.

Wedbush cautions that the number is predicated on Apple bringing on board major content partners, as well as purchasing content owners, as it would take too long to rely solely on creating original content …


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Apple can reach $1 trillion again if it launches a “media bundle” in 2019, says Morgan Stanley

As Apple rebounds from its first earnings call predicated with a guidance revision in 16 years, many analysts remain skeptical of the company’s ability to regain its trillion-dollar status. Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, however, offers a different take, via CNBC


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Apple touts Services growth with 85M monthly active Apple News users, 50M paid Apple Music subscribers, 1.4 billion active devices, more

During Apple’s Q1 2019 earnings call today, Tim Cook shared updates on how some of the company’s Services have been growing including details on Apple News, Apple Pay, Apple Music, and more. This comes as Apple reported 19% Services growth YoY for a new record of $10.9B in revenue.


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Apple’s Services growth is going to dramatically slow, say analysts; accounting method changes

Apple's services growth

Apple’s Services growth is likely to slow during the current quarter, say two separate analyst surveys.

Services revenue is going to be increasingly important to Apple at a time of flat iPhone sales. But while the market does expect Services to continue to grow, the rate of growth is expected to be dramatically slower in the March quarter …


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Expectations of soft iPhone sales put increased focus on AAPL’s $50B target for Services

The consensus prediction for Apple’s Q2 earnings call later today is that the company will reveal iPhone sales some way below earlier analyst expectations. While analysts expect Apple to hit guidance, which would see revenue almost $8B up year-on-year, talk of the iPhone X driving an iPhone 6-like ‘supercycle’ has disappeared.

Assuming that turns out to be the case, it will put increased focus on the company’s revenue from Services


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Yet another analyst raises AAPL target price, this time based on expected Services growth

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Yesterday, a Morgan Stanley analyst expressed just how big of an impact the upcoming iPhone 8 could have on Apple’s stock price and unit sales. Now, RBC analyst Amit Daryanani has expressed his own bullish attitude towards AAPL, but his expectations are based almost entirely on Apple’s Services sector.


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Apple updates system status site for reporting iCloud service issues, now emphasizes last known outage

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icloud

It’s never a great experience when iCloud goes down and Apple services are affected, but it always helps to know it’s not just you having issues. Apple typically acknowledges ongoing outages on its System Status site with a brief description of the problem, and this week Apple has updated its design to emphasize last known issues.


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Google Play Game services brings multiplayer to iOS, lets devs offer cross-platform gaming

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From 9to5Google:

At this week’s Game Developers Conference Google is announcing number of new features coming to developers through Google Play Game services. Notable for iOS users is the fact that Google has decided to expand its multiplayer features to iOS devs. That means all iOS devs that integrate Google Play Game services into their apps (which already offers sign-in, achievements, leaderboards, cloud saves, and more) will be able to let their players across Android and iOS challenge each other to multiplayer matches.

The new features should become available to developers later this month. Google is updating its Play Games Unity Plug-in to support the new cross-platform multiplayer features as well as “introducing an early Play Games C++ SDK to support achievements and leaderboards.” Google notes the cross-platform multiplayer feature will support both its turn-based and real-time multiplayer modes.

Foursquare’s updated iPhone app brings Explore recommendations to the front page

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Foursquare for iPhone was updated version 6.0 today. The update brings the Explore functionality to the forefront of the app. Explore is Foursquare’s recommendation engine, which suggests attactions that users may find interesting based on their previous check-ins.

The new update brings the Explore search box to the top of the navigation bar, enabling quick access to the feature, which now serves up results faster than ever.

With the new Foursquare 6.0, we’ve crunched our billions of check-ins to instantly show you the most interesting things nearby. They’re insights that only Foursquare can deliver, the moment you open up the app. We also put search front-and-center, so you can find whatever you’re craving fast.

✓ Instantly see the best of what’s nearby. In Paris for the first time? We’ll show you the top sights and attractions, approved by local check-ins. In a familiar neighborhood? We can tell you about an up and coming restaurant that just opened up a few blocks away. Whether you’re near familiar stomping grounds or a tourist fresh off the plane, we show you the most interesting things nearby when you open Foursquare.

✓ Search is front-and-center! You can search Explore from the top of the app as soon as you open it up, so you can find what you’re craving even faster. Type what you’re looking for (like “dessert” or “park”), browse a type of place (like “Nightlife”), or tap “Best Nearby” to see our top picks in the area.

The update is avaiable for free on the App Store.