Apple Is Already Building Its Next Massive Business And No One Seems To Have Noticed

Boa noite!

Deixo-vos aqui um excerto de um artigo interessante sobre a Apple, cujo conteúdo me surpreendeu bastante.

"Spot quiz: What is Apple's fastest-growing product by total dollar sales?

If you thought iPhones or iPads, you'd be wrong. Growth of both of those is in decline.

It's actually e-commerce — via iTunes, iBooks and the app stores. Sales of extra, non-Apple "stuff" via Apple's products were up 19% to $4.4 billion in Q1 2014.

This business is one of Apple's smaller lines, of course. But it's still impressive: If there was a standalone tech startup that was doing greater than $16 billion a year in digital e-commerce sales, and growing at nearly 20% a year, everyone would be talking about it.

It would be the hottest company on the planet. It certainly dwarfs Zappos, an e-commerce company whose last reported annual revenues were just over $2 billion. (...)

On his last earnings call, Cook talked about this specifically:

In general, we’re seeing that people love being able to buy content, whether it’s music or movies or books, from their iPhone, using Touch ID. It’s incredibly simple and easy and elegant, and it’s clear that there’s a lot of opportunity there.

The mobile payments area in general is one that we’ve been intrigued with, and that was one of the thoughts behind Touch ID. But we’re not limiting ourselves just to that. So I don’t have anything specific to announce today, but you can tell by looking at the demographics of our customers and the amount of commerce that goes through iOS devices versus the competition that it’s a big opportunity on the platform.

If Cook had made exactly the same statements about watches or TVs, everyone would have freaked out. Apple fanboys would be jumping for joy.

But because he's talking about the dull-but-lucrative business of retail, everyone is ignoring it. In terms of mobile retail, Apple is already ahead of Google and Android. Even though more people own Android phones, most shopping gets done on iPhones. That is probably what Cook is referring to when he refers to "the amount of commerce that goes through iOS devices versus the competition that it’s a big opportunity on the platform."

Artigo Completo: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ecommerce-and-mobile-payments-plans-2014-2#ixzz2uHYXAZlo

Quem diria que uma empresa claramente vocacionada para inovação ao nível de produtos se está a evidenciar via canal de distribuição (digital neste caso). Mais uma, entre muitas, oportunidades que a internet e a "era digital" trouxeram e que, como ninguém, a Apple soube claramente aproveitar.