
Apple Is an Internet Company - signor_bosco
https://anuhariharan.substack.com/p/a-different-way-to-think-about-apple
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Eric_WVGG
Humbly disagree with this whole argument. Bloomberg got this one right:

> Apple’s new revenue strategy isn’t a bad one. It’s, basically, sell the
> customer an iPhone every three to five years, and make a bunch of money in
> the years between by selling them a new Apple Watch or AirPods (which only
> last about three years tops before you need a new pair -- batteries!) and
> services. If a user subscribes to all of Apple’s services for two years
> straight, that’s about equal to revenue from a new iPhone. So in those
> cases, if that user doesn’t buy a new iPhone for a couple years, it’s not a
> big deal.

Really, what seems more likely: services like AppleTV will bust out and become
bigger than Netflix (smaller than AirPods), or in five years they'll follow up
iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods with another hit piece of hardware?

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jrs95
Yeah, the basic strategy seems to be increasing the average value of a
customer that buys an iPhone. Some of that is similar to what they've done in
the past with software integration between their hardware products (AirPods,
Watch), and now they're expanding into services probably because those are
simply easier and more cost effective to build than new hardware products.
It's also easier to get people to pay for a monthly software subscription than
it is to buy hardware (even with 0% APR on credit)

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threeseed
LTV for an Apple customer buying AppleTV+ and iCloud is let's say in the
thousands.

The profit margin for selling a MacBook Pro or Mac Pro ranges from thousands
to tens of thousands.

So it is always going to be more profitable for them to sell hardware than
software or internet services.

But it's irrelevant because they can just do both. Hence why there are both a
products and services company not one or the other.

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lostgame
Apple is a hardware company selling software and services that are primed
towards that hardware.

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tus88
> What is an internet company? Simply, it’s a company that does the majority
> of its sales via the internet.

What a sleazy, slimeball argument.

> But we firmly believe the opposite.

Who is "we" exactly?

~~~
300bps
The author is a partner at Ycombinator.

[https://www.linkedin.com/in/anuhariharan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/anuhariharan)

I disagree with her argument but I don’t think her argument is sleazy or
slimeball.

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Crash0v3rid3
I'd disagree here.

Which one of their services has a web client?

All of their services require an iOS or MacOS device in a walled garden.

~~~
Angostura
You can log in to iCloud quite happily on a Windows box - and from there,
collaborate on a Pages, Numbers or Keynote document.

Or try
[https://beta.music.apple.com/us/browse](https://beta.music.apple.com/us/browse)

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photoGrant
No, they're a lifestyle company. They're aligned with 'living' and want to
penetrate every corner and aspect of that. From your ears to your eyes to your
heart to your feet. From the TV you watch to the run you take. To how well you
sleep.

