Apple Maps Get a Much Needed Overhaul

Apple Redesigns Its Entire Map Ecosystem For Improved Road Coverage, More Detailed Land Cover, Precise Addresses and Pedestrian Data for Users in the United States

Image via Apple

This past Thursday, Apple released its redesigned Apple Maps ecosystem. Apple overhauled all of its maps to offer more detailed insight for more precise searches for people to navigate and explore the world. The new app features a lot more detail — from homes to businesses, smaller bodies of water, landmarks and locations of note. This is a huge and dramatic improvement on its prior version available on iOS 12, bringing the mapping app on par with Google Maps.

Apple Maps today are in use more than ever as customers use maps on their digital devices and with Car Play. Maps are also integrated into many popular apps such as Messages, Calendar, Weather and Photos. MapKit is in use by third-party apps such as Instagram, Bank of America and Nike Run Club.

The new Apple Maps is based on years of work and addresses feedback and extensive criticism from users over the years. The company announced it was rebuilding the app previously and was gathering new data using its own fleet of sensor-equipped vans and by using anonymous data from iPhone users who voluntarily choose to share it. In order to provide users with turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps, Apple had to redesign Apple Maps from the ground up. Apple spent billions of dollars to update and rehaul its map ecosystem with new features and more precise data pulled from on-location tracking that are accessible by just a simple tap. The new Apple Maps also offer more insight into nearby landmarks. Apple Maps will rollout throughout Europe in upcoming months.

“We set out to create the best and most private maps app on the planet that is reflective of how people explore the world today. It is an effort we are deeply invested in and required that we rebuild the map from the ground up to reimagine how Maps enhances people’s lives — from navigating to work or school or planning an important vacation — all with privacy at its core.”

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

---

A Breakdown of New Features and Accessibility

Look Around: Street-Level Imagery with High-Resolution 3D Photography

Similar to Google's Street View, the new Apple Maps offers interactive street-level imagery with high-resolution, 3D photography through a new “Look Around” feature that explores cities such as New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston and Oahu in detail. Look Around is available in iOS 13.

Image via Apple

---

Share Lists of Favorites Through Collections

You can build and share lists of your favorite restaurants or places you want to visit using Collections. This feature is available in iOS 13 and makes it easy to save directions for places you visit often. Additional improvements in Apple Maps include:

• Real-time transit info, now in Miami, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles

• Share ETA to family, friends, or co-workers

• Flight status info

• Indoor maps for malls and airports

• Siri Natural Language Guidance in the US

• Flyover

Image via Apple

---

Flyover Offers 3D Views

In response to much criticism over its previous mapping experience, Apple has redesigned its Apple Maps Flyover experience to now offer a view of select major metro areas with photo-realistic, immersive 3D views. Experience a city from above or explore in high resolution as you zoom, pan, tilt and rotate around the city and its landmarks. Flyover is available in more than 350 cities.

Image via Apple

---

Three Benefits from Using the New Apple Maps

1. Plan Your Trips Better
By sharing your favorite locations or places you intend to visit through the ‘Collections’ feature, you can plan your trip more easily. You can research ahead using the Maps and save spots to visit, ranging from coffee shops and restaurants to art galleries and museums on to a list that you save and then share this list with other people as you wish.

2. Share your ETA

This practical feature helps you share your ETA with anyone with your estimated arrival and real-time updates. You will not have to text them as they will already have access to that information.

3. Get to where you are going — faster and more efficiently

Integrated with real-time transit information, the new Apple Maps helps you get to your destination faster as you will have access to more detailed transit time including any delays, traffic and more.

Image via Apple

---

Commitment to Privacy

Apple is committed to privacy and keeping personal information safe. Hence, no sign-in is required for Maps and Apple Maps are not linked to Apple ID. On-device intelligence offers personalized features such as departure time.

“Any data collected by Maps while using the app, like search terms, navigation routing and traffic information, is associated with random identifiers that continually reset to ensure the best possible experience and to improve Maps. Maps goes even further to obscure a user’s location on Apple servers when searching for a location through a process called “fuzzing.” Maps converts the precise location where the search originated to a less-exact one after 24 hours and does not retain a history of what has been searched or where a user has been.”

— Apple

---

In order to receive the updated Maps on iOS 13, just update your iPhone software. Go to Settings > General > Software Update.

Apple's Growing Services Division After a Landmark Year

After introducing Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, Apple News+ and Apple Card in 2019, Apple has expanded its Services division, with potential revenues of up to $100 Billion by 2024

Image via Apple

Last year as Apple introduced new offerings in video streaming, games, credit cards and news, while further augmenting its established operations such as the App store, Apple Music and iCloud, the tech giant also saw a large increase in services. As the company’s iPhone sales plateau, CEO Tim Cook has looked for alternative ways to keep growing the company. Services, albeit accompanied by risks, challenges and competition, is the new arena that Apple has committed to. While challenging on some levels, Services also offers large potential for growth as Apple can sell subscription-based models using its popular smartphone for things people want to do on their phones.

Profitable Subscription-Based Models

These services were apparent at Apple’s “It’s Showtime” back in March where the company announced two subscription models via its Apple tv+ platform for original shows and programming and Apple News platform for premium news offerings. Apple’s service division has seen a 20 percent increase year after year bringing in more revenue each quarter and setting records in “every geographic segment” in the process, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Services raked in over $10 billion in the first quarter of 2019 — exactly one year ago. This is substantially more than any of Apple’s other business segments such as the Mac ($7.4 billion), iPad ($6.7 billion), or the collected “Wearables, Home, and Accessories” group of products ($7.3 billion).

Earlier this month, Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani explained how Apple’s services arm can be expected to top $100 billion in revenue by 2024. While Apple has not clearly delineated the amount of revenue for any aspect of its large Services offering, we have put together some estimates based on publicly available data below.

---

Apple Music 

Image via Apple

Apple Music is by far the most noticeable entry in Apple’s new Services business — in operation since 2015 when Apple bought and rebranded Beats Music. Apple Music had 56 million customers as of December 2018, according to the Financial Times, coming in second after Spotify with 96 million paid customers as of February 2019. Apple Music does offer free trials and has a bundled service with some Verizon wireless plans. Apple Music has over 60 million songs and is in use in 115 countries today.

Rough estimates for Apple Music income as of last year are roughly $6.7 billion annually at a $10/month subscription

Cost: $10/month ($5/mo for student plans, $15/mo for family plans)

Apple’s revenue: Subscription fees and carrier partnerships

---

App Store and Mac App Store

Image via Apple

The App Store along with the new Mac App Store provide the largest revenue currently. In May 2018, Apple had over 170 billion downloads by its 10-year history. Some revenue comes directly from app sales while others come through in-app purchases. Almost all the top 50 grossing apps used some type of subscription fee or a free game with in-app purchases, according to App Annie estimates.

App Store customers spent a record $1.42 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, with $386 million on New Year’s Day 2020 alone, a 20 percent increase over last year and a new single-day record.

Apple paid developers $100 billion by June 2018. Using the formula of 70 / 30 revenue split, Apple’s revenue estimates from apps alone is roughly $142 billion. Apple has faced some heat over the last two years as the Supreme Court heard an antitrust law against Apple for an unfair monopoly and again when Spotify filed a complaint about the revenue split with the European Union — known for exerting huge punitive measures on tech companies in recent years.

Cost: Variable, depending upon the app and content purchased. 

Apple’s revenue: In-app purchases in games, app sales and app subscriptions

---

iCloud

Image via Apple

Every Apple customer who owns any device — an iPhone, iPad, or Mac is essentially an iCloud user as Apple offers gives free 5GB of storage to all customers. Customers can have additional storage through paid plans. While iCloud is not as well known as Dropbox or Google Drive, it does have built-in advantages such as seamless integration with Apple devices for immediate backup. This works from photos in iPhoto on your iPhone, clearing up space so you can take more photos easily.

The lowest tier in storage plans comes in at 99 cents for 50GB of storage. Easy to sell to customers, this pricing tier even though incredibly inexpensive, also offers substantial profitability given that Apple has sold over a billion iOS devices. Even if a small part of these customers subscribe, it is still a large source of revenue. Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP shared in 2016 that the company had roughly 782 million iCloud users, though he did not specify how many of these customers were paid subscribers.

Cost: $0.99/ month (50GB), $2.99/month (200GB for single or family plan), $9.99/month (2TB for single or family plan)

Apple’s revenue: Subscription fees

---

Apple TV+

Image via Apple

Apple TV+ is Apple’s first foray into TV with its own original programming such as the highly acclaimed “The Morning Show,” that received multiple Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations just two months after launch. Available in over 100 countries, Apple TV+ is accessible via the Apple TV app and can be viewed online and offline without any ads and on demand.

Cost: Free with any Apple device purchase for the first year, $4.99/ month regular plan and subsequently

Apple’s revenue: Subscription fees

---

Apple Arcade

Image via Apple

Apple Arcade is Apple’s newest subscription service within the App Store just for games and providing access to over 100 new and exclusive games, that can be played on iPhones, iPads, iPod touches, Macs or Apple TVs.

Cost: $4.99/ month (includes up to 6 users)

Apple’s revenue: Subscription fees

---

Apple News

Image via Apple

Apple News today reaches over 100 million monthly active users in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. Apple News+ has an all-in-one subscription to over 300 of the world’s top magazines and major newspapers. Apple News will provide live coverage of the US presidential election in partnership with ABC News this year.

Cost: Free for basic use, 9.99 for Apple News+ (Access to over 300 magazines and publications)

Apple’s revenue: Subscription fees with a 70/30 split with publishers

---

Apple Podcasts

Image via Apple

Apple Podcasts now reaches listeners in 155 countries with over 800,000 shows. While Apple does not receive any direct income from Apple Podcasts, the company does have access to data from Apple Music that enables the company to recommend other things to purchase. Podcasting continues to grow at an accelerated rate.

Cost: Free

Apple’s revenue: No known direct income

---

Apple Books

Image via Apple

Apple Books offers additional service revenue, though it comes in significantly behind Amazon’s Kindle library, which is a juggernaut to compete with. Apple Books has improved its design and search features in the latest iteration.

Cost: Depends on content purchased 

Apple’s revenue: Purchased content and subscription fees

---

Apple Pay and Apple Card

Image via Apple

Apple Pay is Apple’s hugely successful payments system that offers customers a secure, fast and easy way to make purchases online, via apps, at retail stores and through iMessage. There were over 1.8 billion Apple Pay transactions in early 2019 and this number is expected to only go up.

While Apple does not charge users, merchants, or developers to use Apple Pay, the company charges the bank that issues the card small fees such as 15 cents on every $100 spent or 0.15 percent based on reports from 2014. Apple also earns money from Apple Pay cash. While this service is free to use when you send money using a debit card, there is a 3 percent fee for using a credit card. Apple also offers an instant transfer option from Apple Cash to your bank account at 1% fee, similar to Paypal.

Apple Pay is now available for use for public transit in large cities from New York to London, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo and Moscow. This year, customers will also be able to tap their iPhones and Apple Watches to ride buses and trains in more cities worldwide and even use the service to access university dorms and other college services in the U.S.

The Apple Card offers users ways to pay for new Apple equipment with zero interest payments for over 24 months.

Cost: 1% instant transfer fee, 3% of any funds sent using Apple Pay Cash tied to a credit card

Apple’s revenue: Transaction fees from users and banks

---

AppleCare

Image via Apple

In existence for over a decade, AppleCare is Apple’s extended warranty service where you can get additional hardware support and a longer warranty period than the default setting that comes with a purchase. This plan is also included in Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Plan

Cost: Depends on product, ranging from $129 to $199 for iPhones, $249 to $369 for MacBook laptops, and $99 to $249 for iMac and Mac desktops

Apple’s revenue: Warranty fees

---

Licensing

This business service division does not apply to consumers, but offers substantial revenue for Apple. Apple sells licenses to various companies for them to offer their products within iOS frameworks such as Google for the default search engine or The Weather Channel offering weather data. This is very important as it offers users immediate access and makes it easy for these companies to reach and retain audiences.

While it is unclear how much Apple earns from licensing, 2014 court documents revealed that Google paid Apple $1 billion to remain the default search bar on iOS as part of the company’s revenue sharing agreement. As of 2019, analysts estimate that Apple receives $9 billion for licensing fees from Google alone.

Licensing agreements are a particularly opaque area of Apple’s business. The last clear numbers we have are from 2014, when court documents revealed that Google paid Apple $1 billion to stay the default search bar on iOS as part of the company’s revenue sharing agreement. But recent estimates from analysts have put Apple’s fee at roughly $9 billion — a number that, if true, would make it one of the biggest parts of Apple’s entire service group all on its own.

Cost: Free

Apple’s revenue: Licensing payments from companies to be featured on Apple products

---

Maps, Siri and a Free iCloud Version

Image via Apple

Since 2019, Apple has now included “free” services like Maps, Siri, and parts of iCloud (like iMessage) as part of its device cost to build iPhones, iPads and Macs. With these new estimates and associated payments for these free services, Apple’s total service revenue for Q1 2018 went up 7.7% to $9.13 billion from to $9.13 billion.

Cost: Free, but you pay for it through your purchase of an Apple device 

Apple’s revenue: Hardware purchases

---

“We begin the new decade with incredible momentum and gratitude to our customers who have shown such enthusiasm for all of our Services, and we continue to celebrate the work of the world’s best creators, storytellers, journalists and developers.”

— Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior VP of Internet Software and Services

With its deep integration of hardware, software and services, Apple’s Services can be expected to continue to grow in 2020 and beyond.

---

Apple Becomes First Streaming Service to Win 3 Golden Globe Nominations In Its Launch Year

“The Morning Show” is nominated for three Golden Globes: Best TV Series, Drama, and Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama, for Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.

Image via Getty

Apple received its first Golden Globe nominations this past Monday December 9th from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) for its hit drama, “The Morning Show.” A first for a streaming service in its launch year, the Golden Globe nominations include dual nominations for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama for both Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon who both play protagonists in the show and serve as executive producers as well. The final awards will be decided and presented at the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 5, 2020.

The nominations are highly prized in the television industry and are even more notable considering that Apple tv+ launched just one month ago on November 7th. These nominations are also the first drama TV actress nominations for both Aniston and Witherspoon.

The Golden Globe nominations received by Apple include:

Best TV Series - Drama - “The Morning Show”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama - Jennifer Aniston in “The Morning Show”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama - Reese Witherspoon in “The Morning Show”

“Thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for today’s historic nominations. After the debut of Apple TV+ just last month, today’s nominations are a true testament to the powerful storytelling that went into ‘The Morning Show,’ as well as all of our Apple Originals.”

— Zack Van Amburg, Apple’s head of Worldwide Video

Image via Apple

“What a beautiful morning for ‘The Morning Show!’ Feeling grateful to be able to bring this story to light alongside a most brilliant group of artists — our cast and crew who worked passionately from their hearts and souls to continue the conversation of power, greed and toxicity in the workplace. It is an important time, and a privilege, to be able to tell stories and create art that reflects the times we are living in. Thank you HFPA for this incredible honor and for also recognizing Jennifer and Reese. Working with them is a dream come true. Kerry, Michael and I are blown away!”

— Mimi Leder, director and executive producer of “The Morning Show.”

Image via Apple

Timely and resonating with audiences worldwide, “The Morning Show” explores the world of morning news and of the people who help America wake up every day through the lens of the lives of two professional working women who have high-pressure jobs and numerous crises in their lives. The drama offers an unparalleled honest view of power dynamics in the workplace, exploring how men and women interact in the cutthroat world of morning news. The show also has an outstanding cast that portrays both the big and subtle moments in the lives of the morning news team.

You can watch “The Morning Show” exclusively on Apple TV+ on the Apple TV app. New episodes come out every Friday. The season finale premieres on Friday, December 20th. “The Morning Show” is one of several Apple Originals, new content created at Apple by a diverse range of voices available on Apple TV+. View our prior coverage of Apple shows in development — Part 1 and Part 2.

---