by Jason Snell
Eddy Cue celebrates 2022 in services
Apple SVP Eddy Cue, in a post on Apple’s Newsroom site:
2022 was a groundbreaking year for entertainment. At some point over the past year, you probably discovered a new app, a new song, a new TV show or movie, or game. An experience that made you laugh, taught you something new, or helped you see the world in a new way — and moved you to share it with others.
Cue’s—press release? blog post? open letter?—is a bullet-by-bullet summary of everything Apple’s been doing in its services business this past year. It’s an interesting view into that part of the business.
I have to wonder what prompted this format for all of this information. A lot of this feels like an expanded version of the sort of discussion Tim Cook makes in the scripted portion of his phone call with financial analysts when Apple’s corporate results are released.
Apple’s results for the last quarter of the calendar year, due to be released on February 2, are probably going to be a bit of a bloodbath due to limited iPhone inventory due to factory shutdowns in China. I wonder if the idea of spotlighting Apple’s services success right now is to get it out of the way of the bad news narrative that’s going to form closer to the results release. There’s also probably some ego boosting going on here, as a senior VP gets to personally trumpet all the successes of his division.
Either way, it’s an interesting document for a year where Apple set records and, oh yeah, released the movie that won the Best Picture Oscar.