Apple’s Services category is becoming a growing and important part of its business. The services sector currently includes things like the App Store, Apple TV+ and Apple Pay, but the company itself has said it has big ambitions for the future.
A new Bloomberg report today indicates that Apple has “explored” expanding its portfolio of “Instacart-like” service that integrates with the Apple Health app…
A service similar to Apple’s Instacart?
In response to a reader’s question about what new Apple services could be coming in the future, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says in his Power On newsletter that the company is focusing on two main things right now: iPhone hardware subscriptions and “buy now, pay.” later” funding feature for Apple Pay.
Both of these services have been previously reported and could launch as early as this year. The iPhone Subscription Program will allow users to purchase iPhone and iPad hardware “similar to paying monthly for an app.” The Apple Pay Later service will allow customers to split any Apple Pay purchase into interest-free payments made every two weeks or for several months with interest.
However, beyond these financial services features, Bloomberg is now reporting that Apple has “explored” the possibility of launching an Instacart-like service. Instacart, for those unfamiliar, is a service that offers food delivery and pickup services. Using Instacart, you can place orders with various retailers and receive orders immediately or pick up orders at your local store.
Instacart is one of many so-called “gig economy” platforms launched in the last decade, along the lines of things like Uber, Uber Eats, Lyft, and DoorDash. However, these types of services are obviously unprofitable and unprofitable, which may affect Apple’s decision.
A hallmark of an Apple-designed service like Instacart will be integration with the Apple Health app for deeper nutrition tracking. Gurman says:
Several new Apple services are in development. The next two we should see are the iPhone hardware subscription program and the “buy now, pay later” for Apple Pay transactions. The company has also explored some Instacart-like services that integrate with nutrition data in the Health app. This is probably stupid to implement and sounds pretty low. I’m also looking forward to bigger updates for TV+.
see also
In Gurman’s post, it sounds unlikely that Apple will eventually launch any service like Instacart, but it’s interesting to know that the company has explored this. This shows the breadth of Apple’s interest in expanding its services segment.
Sunday’s report also said we can expect Apple Fitness+ to expand with “a bunch of new workout types” with iOS 16 this year, an expansion that “seems timely given Peloton’s concerns.”
Reading now
The post Apple Instacart service unlikely but considered appeared first on Gamingsym.