Author: Jefferson Graham / Source: USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — “They’re in a billion pockets, y’all.”
That’s what entertainment icon Oprah Winfrey said this week, in announcing why she had decided to get into business with Apple.
The subtext: With that giant base of 1.4 billion iPhone owners, Apple could sell the public anything.
Even an entertainment service touted that offered no defining characteristics about how it would be different from Netflix, Hulu and the others, one that didn’t even bother to show any video clips or announce a monthly price tag.
Or, as blogger Bob Lefsetz noted: Apple’s event on Monday did nothing more than parade “a bunch of aged celebrities to show credibility,” at an event announcing Apple TV+, the new planned service aimed at the cord-cutting crowd.
Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Big Bird, Reese Witherspoon, Alfre Woodard and Sara Bareilles were the main attraction. Would you pay $10 monthly to watch them if you got a notice about them on your iPhone?
On our Facebook and Twitter feeds this week, the answer was a resounding no, which suggests Apple has a huge marketing challenge.
“Didn’t hear anything that would make me jump in … yet,” noted Peter Csathy, the chairman of consultancy CreatTV, on Twitter. “What’s the great hook? What’s the differentiation?”
Also on Twitter, the writer Ali Hughes said: “I have so many services now, I’m sure the success of the original shows will be the tipping point for me but I can’t in good conscience pay for another streaming option.”
Apple has a challenge, despite all those people who own iPhones. Apple, which has seen iPhone sales decline, is trying to make up the difference with a huge push on Services, recurring monthly subscriptions, like the ones we pay now for iCloud storage, Apple Music and the new News + magazine service that launched this week.
More: After delays, Apple officially cancels AirPower wireless charging mat
At Apple’s launch event this week, the company showcased new services for gaming, entertainment and news.
To hear Winfrey tell it, the iPhone user will get a message about signing up for TV+ and respond by forking over their credit card, which Apple has now also offered to provide.
Lefsetz reminds that the biggest base in the world won’t automatically translate into market dominance. Go back in time with us to 2011, and remember when Facebook was by far the dominant social network, with over 800 million members. Google, the No. 1 website then and now, launched its…
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