Apple Services Rakes In $9.55b Last Quarter, Up 31 percent From 2017 Third Quarter

Apple services category which like iTunes, App Store, Apple Music and iCloud among other services has continued to grow at a healthy rate. This category is now growing to becoming an important contributor to the overall Apple revenue outlook.

Apple services raked in $9.55b up 31 percent from the same third quarter in 2017 when it came in at $7.27b.

As per Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple feel good about the future of its services division, and the organisation saw activities pick up in double digits especially in the area of installations.

Apple Music grew in excess of 50 percent year-over-year with 50 million subscribers from May (against Spotify’s 85m subscribers) and AppleCare expanded at its most astounding rate in 18 quarters. Apple’s cloud administrations income was up 50 percent year over year, and correspondences services, including FaceTime and Messages, are hitting record-breaking use highs. Siri usage for have surpassed 100 billion, and articles read on Apple News have multiplied year over year.

Subscriptions surpassed $300m which is an increase of 60 percent year on year. There are now about 30,000 apps in the App Store which require subscription which is why Tim Cook says subscription is now a significant contributor to its services revenue.

The App store saw an increased number of visitors as well and according to a third party report which Apple was quick to cite, the App Store saw two times the revenue of the Google Play Store. The App Store revenue jump can partly be attributed to the recent expansion of Apple ads search services to countries like France, Japan, Germany and South Korea.

Apple Music grew in excess of 50 percent year-over-year with 50 million subscribers from May (against Spotify’s 85m subscribers) and AppleCare expanded at its most astounding rate in 18 quarters. Apple’s cloud administrations income was up 50 percent year over year, and correspondences services, including FaceTime and Messages, are hitting record-breaking use highs. Siri usage for have surpassed 100 billion, and articles read on Apple News have multiplied year over year.

Apple said back in 2017 that it expects its services unit to rake in a revenue of $14b per quarter by 2020 and as difficult as it sounds, it looks like it might be well in view considering Apple’s one billion dollar investment in original content for its TV and other music exclusives. They have also reportedly poached Jamie  Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg who are the people behind hit TV shows like Breaking Bad and The Crown even though they face an uphill battle in competing with the likes of Netflix who have made investments like $8b for original content. That said though, Apple was a later comer into the paid music streaming service and has since grown to 50 million users in three years. Spotify on the other hand launched in October 2008 and now has 85 million users.

Apple Pay, Music and TV are three services that could help Apple achieve its $14b per quarter target because of the growth they have recorded.