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APPLE INC. It launched a new virtual fitness service and bundle of all its subscriptions, Apple One, focusing the launch of a holiday season product on services that are the backbone of Apple’s growth strategy and that serve working customers. from home during coronavirus disease. 2019 Pandemic (COVID-19).
Apple also introduced a new Apple Watch Series 6 that monitors blood oxygen and will cost $ 399 and a more basic Apple Watch SE for $ 279.
But the bevy of incremental upgrades to existing hardware and the subscription price tinkering disappointed investors, and Apple shares closed 0.2% higher.
The Apple One package will cost $ 15 per month for an individual plan or $ 20 per month for a family plan and includes TV, music and games. Apple also offers a bundle for $ 30 per month that adds news, the fitness service, and more storage.
“It’s a much more aggressive pricing than I thought,” said Ben Bajarin, senior analyst for consumer market intelligence at research firm Creative Strategies, adding that Apple customers already paying $ 15 a month for family plans for some of the company’s content servers they will probably find the largest package to be a “no-brainer”.
Spotify Technology, Apple’s main rival in music streaming, criticized the package, saying that Apple was abusing its dominant position in the market to favor Apple Music. Spotify, which is pursuing an antitrust case against Apple in the European Union and has spoken with US authorities investigating the iPhone maker, charges $ 10 a month for its streaming service that competes with Apple but will not be eligible for the Apple package.
In a statement responding to criticism from Spotify, Apple said the package was aimed at existing users of its services and that “customers can discover and enjoy alternatives to each of Apple’s services.”
Apple said that both the new watches and a new eighth-generation iPad can be pre-ordered starting Tuesday and will be available on Friday. Apple also introduced the Apple Fitness + service, powered by its watches, which will offer virtual workouts for $ 10 per month or $ 80 per year and will be available before the end of the year.
Apple’s fitness service brings you closer to the competition with Peloton Interactive Inc., which makes connected exercise equipment and sells subscriptions to fitness classes online. Apple said that most of its workouts were designed to be performed without equipment or with minimal equipment, such as a set of dumbbells. Peloton workouts generally require a bicycle or a treadmill. Shares of Peloton closed up 4%.
The Apple Watch’s ability to monitor blood oxygen seeks to surpass a similar feature already available in the watches of rival Fitbit Inc., which Alphabet Inc.’s Google is buying for $ 2.1 billion. Apple said its watch will be able to take absolute blood oxygen measurements on demand while the user is still, while Fitbit devices currently show variations in blood oxygen levels or a set of measurements taken while the user is sleeping.
Apple also offered for the first time a way to use an Apple Watch without pairing it one-to-one with an iPhone, offering what it calls “Family Settings.”
FASTER IPAD CHIP
Apple added a faster chip to its base iPad model, which was priced at $ 329 for consumers and $ 299 for education customers. Apple’s new iPad Air will cost $ 599 and will be more like its iPad Pro models and a new A14 processor chip that Apple claims will be the first to use a 5-nanometer chip manufacturing process.
An update to Apple’s biggest seller, the iPhone, is expected to be announced next month after executives said its launch will be delayed for several weeks due to outages related to the pandemic.
Apple said flu researchers in Washington state will study the heart rate and blood oxygen data from the Apple Watch to detect possible early signs of respiratory conditions such as influenza and COVID-19.
Apple’s shares have soared this year even as the virus has crippled economies around the world, thanks in large part to a boom in work-from-home sales.
Shares of Apple gave up earnings to trade unchanged Tuesday after rising more than 50% for the year, well ahead of the 23% gain for the Nasdaq. Even though Apple shares have fallen from an all-time high earlier this month, they remain close to a $ 2 trillion stock market valuation. – Reuters
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