Apple in late March unveiled its brand new Apple TV platform, which includes support for several stand-alone streaming apps, as well as its own Netflix-rival, Apple TV+. Weeks later, Disney came out with its own streaming service, Disney+, which will launch later this year. Unlike Apple, Disney actually revealed the price of its upcoming streaming package, a price that makes Disney+ extremely appealing. Add to that Amazon, HBO, Hulu, and YouTube, and it’s pretty clear the streaming wars are well underway. Apple, however, doesn’t see it that way, saying that it can coexist with the likes of Netflix, which is easily the most popular streaming platform in the world right now.Apple CEO Tim Cook said on Tuesday during Apple’s earnings conference call that its Apple TV+ service is one that can exist alongside other services, Reuters reports.”There’s a huge move from the cable bundle to over-the-top,” Cook said. “We think that most users are going to get multiple over-the-top products, and we’re going to do our best to convince them that the Apple TV+ product should be one of them.”Services are a big part of Apple’s bottom line, with revenue reaching $11.5 billion in the March quarter, a new record for Apple. In other words, Apple already does a great job converting iPhone and Mac users into subscribers. “We have 390 million paid subscriptions, all growing in strong double-digits,” Apple CFO Luca Maestri said during the call. “And we expect the number of paid subscriptions to pass half a billion in 2020.”It’ll be interesting to see how Apple plans to convert its customers to Apple TV+ subs, especially considering that it hasn’t even announced what the streaming service will cost. Also of note is the fact that Apple it’ll initially have a very limited number of original shows for subscribers to watch, although Apple plans to spend $2 billion on programming.
