A Bloomberg report on Tuesday indicates Apple plans to integrate the technology from its recent acquisition of the Texture magazine into Apple News to create its own premium news subscription offering.
… The move is part of a broader push by the iPhone maker to generate more revenue from online content and services.
Apple agreed last month to acquire the Texture magazine app, which offers customers digital access to more than 200 magazines for $9.99 per month. Bloomberg’s source said the Cupertino firm cut 20 Texture employees from the payroll soon after the acquisition.
The world’s largest technology company is integrating Texture technology and the remaining employees into its Apple News team, which is building the premium service. An upgraded Apple News app with the subscription offering is expected to launch within the next year, and a slice of the subscription revenue will go to magazine publishers that are part of the program, the people said. They asked not to be identified discussing private plans. Apple declined to comment.
Apple previously offered digital subscriptions to various magazines and newspapers on an individual basis through an app called Newsstand.
Integrating Texture’s service into Apple News could increase usage of the app and generate new revenue for Apple’s Services division.
Apple can use all the income it can get to meet its target for Services income targets of around $50 billion by 2021. Sales in that segment grew 23% in the iPhone maker’s fiscal 2017, hitting $30 billion.
Apple currently sells subscriptions for Apple Music and iCloud storage. It also wets its beak with a cut of the app subscriptions sold by third-party developers in the App Store. The company also gets a cut of the action with Apple Pay transactions, App Store app purchases, iTunes movie, music, and television show sales and rentals, as well as eBook purchases in the iBookstore.
