Apple's Acquisition of Texture Magazine and Upcoming Apple News Changes

Apple’s iOS 12.2 beta shows possible subscription-based Texture magazine functionality tied to Apple News

Image via 9to5Mac

Last March, Apple's services chief Eddy Cue shared information about the acquisition at the SXSW media festival in Austin, Texas.

“We’re excited Texture will join Apple, along with an impressive catalog of magazines from many of the world’s leading publishers. We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users.”

— Eddy Cue, VP, Apple's Internet Software and Services

Image via Texture

Texture, a subscription-based digital magazine app that provides unlimited access to over 200 digital magazines for $9.99 per month, is being integrated within the Apple News app. Texture currently provides access to popular magazine titles such as National Geographic, GQ, People, Vogue, Maxim, Wired, Sports Illustrated, Bloomberg Businessweek, ESPN The Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stones, Men’s Health and more.

The service will likely boost Apple’s service division while offering a cut to publishers, and function in a way similar to Apple Music but be focused on magazines and news. The new magazine features are expected to complement ad-supported content within the Apple News app. Apple News is currently available in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada.

At Elf, we are launching our Elf channel on Apple News this month! We’ve been working on it for a while, and we hope you will love it. Our channel is ad-free. We provide high quality journalism and editorial content, gorgeous imagery and compelling photography.

Elf channel on Apple News

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Apple Regains Crown as Most Valuable Company with Shares Climbing Back Up

Today Apple returned to the top with a $821.59 billion market cap and shares rising to $174.24 at trading end

Beating out tech rivals Amazon at $805.70 billion and Microsoft at $813.48 billion, respectively, Apple returned to the status of the world’s most valuable company on Wednesday. Apple shares had dropped down to $142.19 on January 3rd after the company announced that it was going to have a lowered end of 2018 quarter earnings, off by initial estimates of $5 billion or more. When Apple did release its quarterly earnings, they came in at $84.3 billion in global revenue.

The global economy today is increasingly dependent upon and affected by the entrepreneurial activity, profitability and employment offered by tech giants. Apple’s stock rebounded quickly. Apple had prepared investors for the worst, admitting to a drop in iPhone sales mostly due to lower sales in China. More iPhone customers are holding on to their smartphones longer with more expensive models. In China, local vendors like Xiaomi and Huawei have dominated the Chinese market, selling their cheaper smartphones. China’s economy has also weakened in recent months. Trade tensions between the U.S. and China have also affected Apple product sales.

Apple shares rallied by end of January, but were still significantly lower than the $232.07 trading price back in October of 2018.

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Apple Will Be Part of the Breakdown of the Cable Bundle, Says Tim Cook

Tim Cook, Apple CEO, announced that Apple plans to participate in changes disrupting the cable bundle with Airplay 2, Original Content, Apps and More.

On Tuesday January 29th, Tim Cook shared some of Apple’s approach to television and original content without offering specific details. Apple’s CEO said that Apple has noticed "huge changes" in customer behavior, which Apple believes will "accelerate as the year goes by." Cook pointed out that Apple expects an accelerated breakdown of the cable bundle.

Image via Apple

Apple intends to be part of this change, including the Apple TV that offers app support so that customers can watch television using apps as they wish and with AirPlay2 that will be offering support to third-party television sets, which will make for a “better” living room experience, according to Cook. He also explained that third-party video subscriptions available on the App Store offer Apple a way to "accelerate in the future" and help customers who wish to buy multiple services. Apple is working on its own original content, with some content available for free and other content available via streaming services and its TV app. Apple has also numerous television shows in the works currently and been signing deals with well-known industry talent such as Jason Katims and Justin Lin.

“Finally, original content, where we will participate. We’ve signed a multi-year partnership with Oprah. Today I’m not really ready to extend that conversation beyond that point. We’ve hired some people we have a super amount of confidence in, and they’re working really hard. We’ll have more to say on that later.”

— Tim Cook, Apple CEO

Apple is expected to have its streaming television service available for launch by the middle of April this year.

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