Apple event - As it happened: Steven Spielberg among celebrities launching TV streaming, new credit card and magazine subscription services
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Apple has launched a whole host of new services, intended to make more money from the people who have already bought its products.
In what was hailed as one of the most significant Apple events in years, the company did not reveal new products or software but instead a range of premium services. Together, they represent new ways to pay for news subscriptions, TV and games – as well as a new way to pay for anything, with a brand new titanium credit card.
The highlight of the new announcements was Apple TV+, a new streaming service built to compete with offerings like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. During the event, it invited many of the world's biggest stars and directors on stage to talk about the new shows, on which Apple is thought to have spent billions of dollars.
But it said it would bring a similar, paid-for and ad-free subscription service, for news and for games. All will allow people to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to that content.
Apple tried to link the various announcements together through references to its corporate principles: stressing a focus on privacy, quality, and the ways that the various products are built to work with the company's hardware and software.
But the different announcements were also linked together in the fact that few details were announced about any of them. Apple only revealed the cost and release date of one of the new products, and gave little information about how many of them will work.
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A full list of participating magazines is yet to be announced, though titles that appeared in the video include Vanity Fair, Wired, Rolling Stone, and Vogue.
Cook hands over to Roger Rosner, Apple's vice president of applications, who begins by saying there will be "3,000 magazines", before quickly correcting that. "Apple News+ will bring you over 300 magazines across all sorts of topics," he says.
He's explaining how magazines can be viewed on both iPhones and iPads – "the best mobile magazine experience ever."
Rosner is back on stage, saying that it won't just be magazines but also newspapers. The LA Times and Wall Street Journal are already signed up. Notably absent is the New York Times, who apparently weren't happy with Apple's terms of service.
"If you were to subscribe to all of these individually, it would cost you over $8,000 per month," he says.
So how much will it cost with Apple News+? $9.99 per month, available from today. Oh, and the first month is free.
Tim Cook is back on stage to talk about Apple Pay. He says there have already been 10 billion Apple Pay transactions this year alone. Some countries have reached nearly 100 per cent acceptance, with Australia leading the way on 99 per cent.
(A lot of love for the guy in the boiler suit on social media by the way)
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