Apple rings in new era of Services following landmark year

Apple has marked the close of a historic 2019 for its Services offerings, a year that introduced Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, Apple News+ and Apple Card, and celebrated the continued success of the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud and more experiences only Apple can create and deliver. Apple provides customers with the highest-quality services along with an unparalleled commitment to privacy and security, and offers creators and developers the opportunity to bring their creative visions to people around the world.

“2019 was the biggest year for Services in Apple’s history. We introduced several exciting new experiences for our customers, all while setting the standard for user privacy and security,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “We begin the new decade with incredible momentum and gratitude to our customers who have shown such enthusiasm for all of our Services, and we continue to celebrate the work of the world’s best creators, storytellers, journalists and developers.”

Apple’s ongoing focus on the deep integration of hardware, software and services drove all of its platforms to new heights in 2019.

The App Store is the world’s safest and most vibrant app marketplace, with over half a billion people visiting each week. It remains the safest place for users to find software and provides developers of all sizes access to customers in 155 countries. Since the App Store launched in 2008, developers have earned over $155 billion, with a quarter of those earnings coming from the past year alone. As a measure of the excitement going into 2020, App Store customers spent a record $1.42 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, a 16 percent increase over last year, and $386 million on New Year’s Day 2020 alone, a 20 percent increase over last year and a new single-day record.

Apple Music is the most complete music experience, offering over 60 million songs and world class music experts and tastemakers curating thousands of playlists and daily selections in 115 countries. Apple Music is the best music service for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Mac, HomePod and CarPlay. The new time-synced lyrics feature was a highlight in 2019: over 50 percent of listeners have used it on iOS 13. The innovative Beats 1 radio station offers exclusive shows by Frank Ocean, Nicki Minaj, The Weeknd, DJ Khaled and Elton John. Apple Music provides artists and songwriters at every level of their career with a global platform to reach new and existing audiences.

Apple TV+ is the home of Apple Originals from the world’s greatest storytellers, including “The Morning Show,” “Dickinson,” “For All Mankind,” “See” and “Servant.” Apple TV+ made history as the first streaming platform to receive multiple Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations in its launch year, and is the first and only streaming service to debut instantly in over 100 countries and regions.

The Apple TV app brings together the different ways to discover and watch shows, movies and more in one app, and is available on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, iPod touch, select Samsung smart TVs, and Amazon Fire TV and Roku devices, and will be available on LG, Sony and VIZIO smart TVs later this year. The Apple TV app now offers over 30 Apple TV channels — direct subscriptions to premium video services so customers can watch both online and offline, ad-free and on demand, all in one app.

Apple Arcade is a groundbreaking game subscription service within the App Store, offering users unlimited access to the entire catalog of 100+ new, exclusive games, all playable across iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and Apple TV. Apple Arcade features award-winning titles such as “Sayonara Wild Hearts,” “Assemble with Care” and “Mini Motorways,” and throughout 2020, the service will add new games and expansions every month.

Apple News draws over 100 million monthly active users in the US, UK, Australia and Canada and has revolutionised how users access news from all their favourite sources. Apple News+ offers an all-in-one subscription to hundreds of the world’s top magazines and major newspapers. In 2020, Apple News will provide live coverage of key moments in the US presidential election in partnership with ABC News.

Apple Podcasts offers free audio stories that entertain, inform and inspire, and now delivers listeners over 800,000 shows in 155 countries on more devices than ever before. Listeners can search topics and people within the audio to find new shows and episodes.

Apple Card and Apple Pay lead innovation with the ways customers pay for goods and services, and access everyday experiences. Last month, customers began using Apple Card Monthly Installments to purchase new iPhones and pay for them over 24 months with zero interest. In 2019, entry to more than 150 stadiums, ballparks, arenas and entertainment venues around the world was available with contactless tickets on iPhone and Apple Watch. Customers could ride public transit with Apple Pay in some of the largest cities in the world, including Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Moscow, London and New York. In 2020, customers will be able to easily tap their iPhone and Apple Watch to ride trains and buses in even more cities, including Washington, D.C., Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Foshan, and access dorms and services at additional universities across the US.

iCloud powers a seamless experience in keeping a customer’s photos, videos, files, app data and more safe, up to date and available across all their devices. Over 75 percent of iCloud users are protected with two-factor authentication, an extra layer of security designed to ensure that no one else can access their account or data. With Family Sharing, up to six family members can share access to Apple services, including Apple TV+, Apple News+, Apple Arcade, Apple Music and an iCloud storage plan, as well as individual music, movie, TV, book and app purchases. 

In 2020, Apple will continue to delight customers, collaborate with developers and creators, offering new levels of creativity, choice and innovation across original series and films, podcasts, music, news, games, apps, payments and unique experiences only Apple can deliver.