Apple Introduces Apple News+, TV+, Arcade, Card
• UPDATED: During Apple’s star-studded Special Event held yesterday at the company’s Cupertino, CA HQ, CEO Tim Cook trotted out special guests Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey and unveiled several new initiatives — an updated magazine and newspaper subscription service, dubbed Apple News+, its long-anticipated streaming TV service, Apple TV+ (featuring a slate of original programming); a subscription gaming service, Apple Arcade, which will allow players to stream over 100 new and exclusive games on their Apple device for a subscription fee; and the Apple Card, described as a “mobile-first credit card that lives inside Apple Wallet.” The card has no fees and offers two percent cash back on purchases; three percent on Apple purchases.
The $9.99-per-month Apple+ service is integrated into the existing Apple News app and gives paying subscribers access to over 300 magazines as well as select newspapers and premium digital news services. Some of the magazines included in Apple News+ are GQ, Esquire, Popular Science, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, New York Magazine and Vogue, Variety and Rolling Stone. Newspapers included in the package are the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal. Digital publications include theSkimm, Techcrunch and The Highlight by Vox. Cook remarked, “We believe in the power of journalism and the impact it will have on your lives.”
Apple News+ is now available in the U.S. and Canada via an update the Apple News app. The company plans to launch it in Australia and the U.K later this year, and in other European countries in 2021. Apple News+ will effectively replace Texture, a magazine subscription service that Apple acquired a year ago. Texture had offered subscribers digital access to more than 200 magazines for a flat fee of $9.99 per month. Watch the entire keynote posted on Apple.com.
