Apple’s Ambitious Additions Features News, Gaming, and Credit

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(Apple)

Apple unveiled it’s long-awaited streaming service on Monday, including its premium news service, its gaming subscription service, Apple Arcade, and streaming service itself, Apple TV Plus, and a physical and digital credit card called Apple Card. Celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, and J.J. Abrams were stage alongside Apple CEO Tim Cook at Apple’s Cupertino, California, headquarters to announce new projects and services for the platform.

Apple News Plus subscribers would get access to “a curated collection of general interest news” according to CNN’s Brian Stelter. More Journal articles may be available inside the app, but will be basically impossible to find, Journal reporter Amol Sharma reported. Apple News Plus subscribers will see a restricted Journal zone of commodity general-interest news, and the publisher seems to expect that most users won’t seek much beyond that. Apple said today that 300 magazines will be part of Apple News Plus, including ones you might actually want to read, such as The New YorkerThe AtlanticNational Geographic, and Vogue.

Apple Gaming, which is set to release in the fall, is designed to give players access to mobile, desktop and Apple TVgames. It features a collection of more than 100 games that will be exclusive to Apple Arcade. And the games will work in 150 countries, even without an internet connection.

“We want to make gaming even better,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

The video service, Apple TV Plus, is also set to launch this fall will offer buyers access to new Apple original shows. Apple also created a new TV experience called Apple TV Channels, which will allow users to select premium channels like Showtime and HBO on demand.

However, amidst the excitement, critics pointed out a few key questions, primarily about  pricing, making it difficult to judge how its service will stack up against competitors.

“While Apple may introduce a bigger roster of original content than Amazon and Netflix during their respective launches, the streaming market has arguably already reached a level of saturation and consumer fatigue in the United States,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst at Chatham Road Partners.

A variety of analysts have also expressed dismay over the streaming gaming and television offerings arriving later this year rather than an immediate launch.

“Given some of these Services are not available until the fall, it is surprising that Apple chose to schedule this event in March,” analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch told clients on Tuesday.

Apple News+ was set at $9.99 per month, precise release date information and pricing for the other services were not given.