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- Apple is increasingly emphasizing the growth of its services business.
- Its definition of “services” includes advertising, which Apple routinely says is a major growth driver.
- But Apple’s definition of advertising may surprise you.
Apple is the iPhone, and the iPhone is Apple. But as we’ve pointed out many times, iPhone sales won’t grow forever. Last quarter, they actually dropped.
Which is why, for the past several years, Apple has been taking pains to highlight its growing “services” business.
“Services,” per Apple’s description, is a fast-growing grab bag of stuff, all of which doesn’t directly involve Apple hardware: money Apple makes from App Store sales, money Apple makes selling warranties and cloud storage, and money Apple makes selling you music and TV subscription…