Apple Card, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade: This is another way of saying an iPhone

Apple just can not get rid of this addiction to the iPhone.

On Monday, during a noisy event, the company repeatedly stressed how its services would work on its mobile devices. For the Apple News Plus premium subscription plan, the magazines have been designed to take advantage of the iPhone or iPad, adding animated covers and automatically downloading content for convenience. "I can read full issues of magazines, no matter where and when, directly from my phone," said Wyatt Mitchell, director of application design at Apple, during Monday's event.

The Apple Arcade Game Subscription Service will give Apple device users unlimited access to over 100 new exclusive games. "You will not find these games on any other mobile platform or any other subscription service," said Ann Thai, senior product manager for the App Store.

And the new free credit card from Apple, Apple Card, requires an iPhone to work. "He can do all kinds of things no other credit card can do, "said Jennifer Bailey, Apple Pay Manager. For starters, you do not have to wait days to get your card. Just register on your iPhone. "

The new TV application of the company will be available on Mac, iPad and, of course, iPhone. The application includes various streaming services, with the exception of Netflix, and offers recommendations for what you should watch next. "Everything you've seen is amazing on the iPhone," said Peter Stern, vice president of Apple Services. The TV application will come even on smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony and Vizio, as well as streaming video boxes from Roku and Amazon. "Now that you've seen the new Apple TV app, you'll want it on all your screens," added Stern.

Apple has not specified where its biggest news of the day, its streaming TV Plus TV streaming service, will be available when it will go live, but it's likely that it's up and running. in the same places as the TV app, a feature of iOS, MacOS and smart TVs. Even Oprah appeared to explain why she works with Apple on Apple TV Plus. Tip: This has a lot to do with the iPhone. "One billion devices, all of you!" Oprah told the crowd.

Overall, Monday's event was marked by hype and details. Apart Apple News Plus, nothing announced was immediately accessible. Apple introduced its partners one after the other for its gaming and television services, but that did not give much details about the prices or the date on which we can subscribe to them. However, one thing was perfectly clear: despite Apple's claims that it wants to become a service center, it remains fundamentally "the iPhone company".

About two-thirds of the company's revenue comes from its smartphone, an influx of money that has allowed it to become the first US $ 1 trillion company. This dependency has become a problem because users have updated their devices less often. Apple is no longer valued at over a trillion dollars and earlier this year, it reported a rare loss of quarterly sales due to declining demand for the iPhone.

With its new services, Apple has the opportunity to appeal to people who just like watching TV, reading news or playing games on their mobile devices. People who own an iPhone, iPad or Mac already consider the message from Apple. It's everyone, those Android and Windows device owners, that Apple could target as a real expansion opportunity.

For now, however, these people are not lucky. On Monday, Apple did not say a word about any of its upcoming services for Android or Windows devices. He did not even say whether his television content could be viewed via a desktop web browser. And an Apple spokesman said the company had no more information to share, beyond what it had announced on stage Monday.

"People are used to watching content on any device that they have at the time, and it's not always on Apple devices," said Bob O & # 39; Donnell, analyst at Technalysis Research. "Apple can not make services really effective except on its own devices."

Tiptoe outside the enclosed garden

There are signs Apple may not be a completely enclosed garden for long. The company has long created a version of its iTunes service that runs on Windows computers. This turned out to be a smart decision from the start, with downloads rising when iTunes became available on Windows PCs late 2003, about six months after launching the service on Mac.

Since then, however, Apple's services have remained primarily in the Apple ecosystem, aside from Apple Music. There is an Apple Music app for Android, which Apple first offered as a beta before deploying it widely. And in December, the company deployed the Apple Music speakers for Amazon Echo, allowing users to ask the voice assistant Alexa to read leads from the Apple streaming service.

But the Apple Android app does not work as perfectly as the iOS version and new features often appear months or even years after their launch on the iOS app.

In January, at the CES, Apple took a new step by putting its services on competing devices by partnering with leading TV manufacturers. Samsung smart TVs will support iTunes movies and TV shows starting in the spring. Samsung TVs will also support AirPlay 2, Apple's upgraded Wi-Fi streaming technology, allowing customers to stream video, music and other content directly to their TV from an Apple device.

While Samsung is the only TV manufacturer to offer iTunes TV and video on its TVs, other companies – LG, Vizio and Sony – will allow users to stream the content of their iPhones, iPads and Macs on their TVs .

Monday, Apple went even further. Its redesigned TV application will arrive on Samsung smart TVs this spring, then on LG, Sony and Vizio TVs. Roku streaming video devices and Amazon Fire TV will also be supported.

But it is there that ends its opening. At least initially, none of the services seem to work with Android or Windows.

Close from Android devices and Windows cut Apple's a significant percentage of the phone, tablet and PC markets. According to IDC, about 85% of all smartphones use Android, and this will not change in the foreseeable future. According to Net Applications, more than half of the world's tablets also use Android, and more than 85 percent of the world's desktop and notebook computers use Windows, said the researcher.

Apple will probably end up running its services on competing devices. If you really want to become more than an iPhone maker, you have to do it.

But no matter what services provided, Apple's dependence on the iPhone is not going away anytime soon.

"Video streaming is not going to save shares of [Apple] if the iPhone market goes down, said Colin Gillis, an analyst at Chatham Road Partners, "Apple remains the iPhone company."

The story took place at 5 o'clock in the morning.