"The story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent." - from "Dragnet".
I have Amazon's Kindle app on my iPad and desktop computer. Barely ever use it. Prefer the feel of a book in my hands. Hardcovers, Trade Paperbacks, Mass Market Paperbacks; you can throw in newspapers and magazines, too. Although I've embraced the digital world, there are some aspects of the old analog ways which just seem better. However, when vacationing, you need an e-reader or tablet instead of hauling around a small library. Plus, some small publications are only available in digital format. I really tried to like e-books, primarily because they're less expensive, but no go. Maybe I'm just old fashioned. However, for those that travel frequently, the Kindle app, or the Apple Books app is a necessity. But hear me out.
iPhones comprise forty-five percent of all smartphones in the United States. That means domestically about 100 million people are in the Apple ecosystem, and once you're in the grips of Apple's tentacles, it's difficult to escape. You may have to pony up a little more for an Apple product, but they're extremely user-friendly and have a very sticky platform. Like The Hotel California, you can checkout anytime, but you can never leave. Although the iPhone is Apple's main source of revenue, it's slowly transitioning from a hardware company to a service based organization. In the third quarter of 2019, the services sector accounted for 21% of sales. Like a full fledged dreadnought, iPhone is still the main profit driver with 48% of the pie, but services are growing at an impressive 13% clip. Familiar products such as iCloud and Apple music contribute to this segment, but in my opinion, a newcomer at Apple is going to accelerate the services statistic. That upstart is Apple News+.
If you're young, you're probably already familiar with Apple News+. After all, keeping ahead of the technology curve is the cool thing these days. Plus, if you're under 40 years old, there's a slim chance you're reading these missives from an old man. If you're at an advanced age, computer science is a confusing and frightening aspect of today's modern world. Let's face it, we're in a mashup amalgamating the digital and analog worlds. Assimilate or become a has-been like so many shot fighters. I taught Internet surfing for seven years at the local library. The one underlying theme from all my pupils was the belief the computer would explode from clicking the wrong icon. In a way, they were right. Many SNAFU's can happen when just downloading and saving a file if you don't know what you're doing. That said, although it's still remains difficult, the use of computers has gotten easier over the years. Especially with Apple products. So if you're old, read on.
Apple News+ is the $9.99 per month subscription service which turbocharges the Apple News app. If you own an iMac, iPhone, or iPad, you're probably already familiar with Apple News. Along with social media, the news aggregation app makes it easy to be locked into your portable infotainment system all day long. Apple News app is free, plus you can manage your subscriptions with it. Now with Apple News+, you can read over 200 magazines, plus a few newspapers for a mere ten dollars a month. Apple previously commandeered the music and telephone industries. Now they're up to it again with magazine distributions.
Full disclosure, I'm not an Apple fanboy. But, like Amazon and Google, Apple has made life much easier and cost effective for me. Like Amazon and Google, Apple is also compiling a significant personal dossier about yours truly. Credit card number. Location specific information. What books and magazines I read. The music I prefer. Telephone records. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Think of those security questions you need to provide just to open an account. A digital mise en scène of my life. Is this a bad thing? Not really, it's the world we live in. It's tough to embrace at times, but we're here and have been for fifteen years. It's just tough to imagine after being weaned on rotary phones. You better hope nobody goes data mining for your personal information.
But back to Apple News+. I'm having a lovefest with it. The Atlantic, Consumer Reports, Billboard and Time are all on my 'Favorites' feed. That's just a small sampling. I browse hundreds of magazines during down time. All for a sawbuck. When I'm on the go, I read them on my iPhone. But at home, I use the iPad. A much better reading experience, which goes without saying. With 80 million iPad users stateside, Apple News+ should be a big hit. In the 2014 Sci-Fi mystery movie Ex Machina, Stanley Kubrick's film A.I.Artificial Intelligence, and the HBO television series "Westworld", humans are having sex with robots. I hope it doesn't come down to that, but with the speed that technology is advancing, you just never know. It's tricky.
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