46 MACWORLD APRIL 2020
iOSCENTRAL WHY APPLE NEWS+ HAS STUMBLEDApple News+’s shortcomings result in an experience that feels
uncharacteristically “scattershot” for Apple.News+ stories. Apple Music is probably
the service that most resembles Apple
News+ because of the diversity of its
content, but it doesn’t suffer from the same
problems because you access all the
content through the subscription and
everything shares the same file type. For
that matter, it’s usually pleasing to listen to
the music regardless of which device
you’re on. With Apple News+’s magazines,
though, you’re almost certainly going to
want to use an iPad or a Mac.
I’m not saying I want more control from
Apple in this space. If anything—
considering Apple’s increasingly
uncomfortable relationship with the U.S.
president and its close ties with the
censorship-happy
government of China—a
little less control from
the folks in Cupertino
would be preferable. I’ve
also long believed that
Apple gets too much of
the benefit of the
content from Apple
News+, while the actual
content makers get
comparatively little. If
Apple decided to let
Apple News+ go the
way of AirPower (go.
macworld.com/apow), I
might even be happy.
But it’s important to remember that—so
far—it looks as though Apple News+ is the
only true minus in Apple’s big metamorphosis
into a part-time services company. I believe
it’s safe to say that it was always considered
the least important of Apple’s new services
(there was plenty of head-scratching when
Apple bought Texture [go.macworld.com/txtr],
which Apple News+ is based on). Apple is a
services company now, and for the most part,
it’s a good one. It just needs to stick to
services where it has more control.
Maybe Apple News+ will get better:
Apple Music, which also had a slightly
rough start, proves that’s a possibility. But
for now, one half-baked new service out
of three ain’t bad. ■