The slow demand for 2018 iPhone could be considered one of Apple’s biggest disasters in recent years. Still, the company is putting some confidence into its services division, what is coming to show an additional growth. The business category is Apple Care, Apple Pay, App Store, iTunes, Apple Music and more. Now, Services are the second largest generator of revenue for Apple and is believed to be the company’s most profitable resort.
Whenever seeing the poor profits of newer iPhone models, the company articulated a goal of hitting $50 billion in services revenue by 2020, from 2017’s $30 billion gross. During the last fiscal quarter of 2018, that goes from July 2018 throughout September 2018, services revenue hit a quarterly $10 billion. Whereas Apple is convinced that it’s on the way to achieve its target, an analyst from CNBC believes that services division will be “another shoe to drop”. The analyst in question, Tony Sacconaghi of AB Bernstein worries that the companies selling subscriptions in the App Store are beginning to rebel yet again which presently has become famous as “Apple Tax.”
Apple presently charges companies which include video streamer Netflix and music streamer Spotify 15% to 30% of monthly subscription revenue generated by App Store users. Apple takes now 30% of which subscribes pays for the initial year, and 15% on the subsequent years. Tired of paying such taxes, content developers as Netflix and the music streamer Spotify are presently moving away from accepting fresh subscriptions through their iOS apps. During the last month, Netflix announced that it will not allow new members, or these returning when quitting the service, to subscribe via Apple’s Ecosystem. Whereas existent subscribers will be in a position to keep paying its subscription through in-app payments, fresh or returning users will need to do it via Netflix website.
According to Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri, Netflix is the biggest developer in the Apple Store, but even though this is true, it contributed fewer than 3% of total services revenue last year. In other words, the manufacturer isn’t worried with app developers that are acting against “Apple Tax.” Even though Apple doesn’t care, the analyst believes that this policy soon might revolt much more developers. His chief concern though is a case currently in front of Supreme Court. If the court issues a ruling that achievements in the “Apple Tax” being branded as a monopoly that overcharges developers, Apple’s services revenue growth might be severely impacted. On the other hand, a ruling isn’t expected soon since the court has yet to choose whether the plaintiffs it have the straight to sue. That’s a good opportunity for Apple to get the perfect of its services revenue, while it starts to promote a full overhaul on its phone section, whenever the whole fiasco of 2018 iPhone series.