Sounds like an absolute non-story from Apple today. And that’s worse than no story at all.
When Gruber is lambasting you right & left, you’re in trouble, Tim.
UPDATE: Footnote 4 on the Apple Card web page says: “Variable APRs range from 13.24% to 24.24% based on creditworthiness. Rates as of March 2019.” What a crock of [crap] this “low interest rates” line is. Those interest rates are usury, right in line with the rest of the credit card industry. 24% interest ought to be criminal, and 13% is not “low”.
Look, no playing around, this is ludicrous. “Usury” is right. Apple’s letting cash get in front of the business. Stop looking for growth through services, and get out of the loan shark business.
Are magazines still a thing? Didn’t Apple go down this same path with Newsstand back when the iPad first launched?
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The whole TV Plus segment felt like a presentation from another company, like Google or Amazon, not Apple. Apple does a good job keeping events moving along, and they tend not to parade a long series of people on stage. This was a parade of a bunch of A-list celebrities — Spielberg! Oprah! — but it just went on and on.
Ouch.
And most importantly:
Why don’t we know what this is going to cost yet?
Wtaf? Come on. If you don’t even know how much you can charge because you’re still hammering out deals with your partners, well… The service isn’t ready yet. You shouldn’t’ve announced a date for a reveal.
What was the purpose of this presentation, anyway? Tell me it wasn’t simply to make good on advertising promises (via Six Colors’ Liveblog):
“Listen, if you make this deal with us to be a launch show, you’re gonna get to pitch your show on stage at Apple to the entire audience of people who watch Apple media events.”
Say it with me Apple: “It’s ready when it’s ready.” These aspirational presentations are really getting on my nerves. Wait until it’s ready. We can wait. Don’t promise AirPower over a year before you have to pretend it never existed. Say what you will about Ping, at least it shipped. (I know, I know. AirPower could come any time now. But would it have really hurt if we didn’t know about it until it did?)
I think it’s close to profit taking time on my Apple stock, if this presentation didn’t crater it’s price again.