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After long-standing rumours about Apple’s event for subscription services in March, the Cupertino-based company has finally confirmed about the same. Apple would be holding an event on March 25 at the Steve Jobs Theatre at 10 am Pacific Time.
The company has not given any details on the products that would be launched during the event. Apple’s live stream page gives some clues about the launch event. The invite includes a video that shows the Apple logo below the spotlight with a caption ‘Its show time’. This certainly means that the company would be launching its much-rumoured subscription services for video and news.
Rumours about the company’s new video-streaming services have been around for quite some time. It would be competing directly with the widely popular services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple has invested over a billion dollars to produce shows for its video-streaming services. The shows are expected to cover a variety of genres that include drama, documentary, comedy, kids program, etc. Apple has been closely working with former Sony Pictures executives Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht for the shows that are expected to be released during late 2019. The report also mentioned Apple is in talks with various celebrities for attending the event celebrities like Jennifer Anniston, Jennifer Garner, Reese Witherspoon and director JJ Abrams.
Buzzfeed reported that during the event, Apple would also launch premium news subscription services. The company has partnered with several publications like The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, etc. However, the partnership does not seem to be going smoothly as the report mentions that publishers are not happy with Apple’s 50 per cent revenue cut from the service, making them hesitant to finalise the deal. Apple is said to charge $10 to its consumers for the premium news subscription services.
The invite does not give any hint on any hardware that were expected to be released during the event. However, Apple has a history of launching new products in its March event. Previously, the company has launched the iPhone SE, the budget $329 iPad and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. Apple has also refreshed its lineup previously during its events held in spring. It is expected that Apple would be launching new iPads including the iPad mini 5. The last time iPad mini got an update was in 2015 when Apple introduced the iPad mini 4. There have been several speculations about Apple launching the AirPods 2 with wireless charging, alongside the iPod Touch 7. Popular analyst Ming-Chi Kuo stated in his investor note that Apple would be relaunching the AirPower during the first half of 2019.
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