I disagree with much of that, really.
It’s not going to be for Buy Now, Pay Later but neither is it a generic “technology” acquisition. Clearly it is for a specific thing (credit risk analysis) which could only really be for Apple Card.
Apple have form for this too: Workflow > Shortcuts, Dark Sky > Weather, Testflight, etc.
Sorry, can you elaborate on Testflight?
But yeah, Apple are really good at R&Ding in their own original space and then acquiring the better tech once its built to integrate
Testflight was originally a third party app, available for iOS and Android.
Apple bought it, closed the Android version and integrated it better with iOS (auto-updates, for example) before then also bringing it to macOS too.
It can be used to test apps on all Apple platforms, and only Apple platforms.
So a classic “see technology we like/want/need, acquire it, and close it off from the competition/multi-platform to be Apple-exclusive”.
The only exceptions to that approach which I can think of are Shazam (Apple-acquired and integrated closely with their products, but still multi-platform) and Apple Music (which was Beats Music, and is still multi-platform too). Perhaps the reason for this is that, in a roundabout fashion, both Apple Music and Shazam are designed to drive subscription revenue by selling Apple Music subscriptions, so leaving those apps more open may be thought of as of overall benefit to Apple.
Shazam is a bit of an oddity. You could excuse it as being a well known service, and apple has been known to be a little more open with their services. In this instance though, it generates them no revenue, and wouldn’t explain Dark Sky.
I think perhaps it’s more in tune with brand awareness. Dark Sky, as popular as it was, was very niche. One of those things you only really knew about, if you knew and used it. Shazam was everywhere, and you know what it is whether you’ve used it or not. So I think it got the beats treatment for that reason. They’ve used the tech in their own products, but kept the brand alive elsewhere.
As for the article above, I don’t agree with their take either. Especially when it comes to BNPL, because there have been rumblings of Apple exploring this, and then a Bloomberg article dropped recently with a potential hardware subscription service which sounds an awful lot like BNPL, in the form of how it works with the powered by Klarna Xbox All Access subscription, which gets you a console and gamepass bundled together. I can see Apple using this platform to do as much of this in house as possible.
I wouldn’t count it out due to the bad rep. Especially because that bad rep makes it prime for apple to swoop in with something very customer friendly without the caveats of the existing options. But we’ll see.
Yes, but generally only when there is revenue to be made in some way or another.
Shazam does link closely with Apple Music and various promotions such as three months of free Apple Music have been run inside the Shazam app. Strategically, it’s all part of a general marketing halo effect around Apple Music - using the well-regarded Shazam brand to “introduce” customers to Apple Music.
True, and they do already have the iPhone Upgrade Programme, so it could be seen as a natural extension of existing offerings - bundling hardware and software, like Apple One + iPhone Upgrade Programme, for a potentially more lucrative and “simple” package positioned as everything a customer would need (and also helping to lock them closer into the Apple ecosystem at the same time).
Apple Working to Bring More Financial Services In-House
Apple Inc. is developing its own payment processing technology
and infrastructure for future financial products, part of an
ambitious effort that would reduce its reliance on outside
partners over time, according to people with knowledge of the
matter.
A multiyear plan would bring a wide range of financial tasks in-
house, said the people, who asked not to be identified because
the plans aren’t public. That includes payment processing, risk
assessment for lending, fraud analysis, credit checks and
additional customer-service functions such as the handling of
disputes.
Can’t read the full article as it’s behind a paywall:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-30/apple-is-working-on-project-to-bring-financial-services-in-house?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=220330&utm_campaign=author_19842959&sref=9hGJlFio
I think this really lines up with the Apple shift to services; they know they can’t rely forever on the Chinese market, they know they can’t rely on the American, British and EU markets purchasing hardware.
How do they make money? Apple Music, Apple Card, Apple Account etc
All perfectly integrated into the Apple Ecosystem
A bit more here: https://9to5mac.com/2022/03/30/apple-project-breakout-to-bring-financial-services-in-house-could-broaden-payment-features-beyond-us/amp/
An early report by Bloomberg also shows Apple is working on a “buy now, pay later” feature for Apple Pay transactions.
The service is currently planned to work as follows: When a user makes a purchase via Apple Pay on their Apple device, they will have the option to pay for it either across four interest-free payments made every two weeks, or across several months with interest, one of the people said. The plan with four payments is called “Apple Pay in 4” internally, while the longer-term payment plans are dubbed “Apple Pay Monthly Installments.
This matches pretty well what I’ve I’ve been teased with from folks at Apple.
Mentioned it briefly here in paragraph two in brackets: