The headline on Apple’s second-quarter financial report came as no surprise to anyone familiar with the company’s new rhetoric. “Services Revenue Reaches New All-Time High of $11.5 Billion,” the company, once more famous for making iPhones, trumpeted on Tuesday night.
As has been the case for several quarters, Apple and its top brass went over and above to tout the brilliance of the company’s services business, which develops software such as Apple Music, the streaming service, and Apple Pay, for digital payments. The theory is that there are 1.4 billion active iPhones, iPads and other Apple devices out there, giving the company a huge distribution platform through which it can sell software. At a showcase in March, Apple unveiled new subscription services for games, news