From Gurman's latest Power On column, mailed Sunday to Bloomberg.com subscribers:
Last year, Apple added a new page to its website called “Only on Apple” to tout its growing range of online services. That includes Apple TV+, Arcade, Fitness+ and iCloud.
The “Only on Apple” phrasing—instead of something like “Services”—is a not-so-subtle reminder that you can generally only get these services if you own Apple hardware. (And to be fair, most people probably wouldn’t know what “services” means in this context.). But I think the reality is that most people aren’t buying Apple hardware in order to get access to Apple Podcasts, Apple News+ and iCloud.
With that in mind, I would argue that Apple has little to lose—and a lot to gain—by expanding its services to Android.
Apple has been reluctant to take such a step because a faction within the company believes that it might harm iPhone sales. I think the opposite is true. Putting services on Android would expose more people to the Apple brand and generate revenue from a platform with billions of users. If those users like what they see, they may decide to buy Apple hardware.
My take: Gurman keeps tossing ideas to Apple management hoping something will stick. Interesting, though, to think of factions within the company pushing for this or that marketing strategy.
Or a blog -named “Gurman 1.0” perhaps?
If legislation refactors the ‘ecosystem business’ then I would expect Apple to look for ways to take advantage of this. Could you imagine, for example, a “curated App Store on Android, including a uniform way to manage and cancel subscriptions?”