Cupertino (USA) (AFP)

The new iPhones, better and cheaper than before, no longer create the surprise: this year, the star of the return of Apple is its Apple TV + streaming video platform, which will be released on November 1, two weeks before Disney +, at a broken price.

As every year, the California giant has presented with great fanfare a new range of smartphones and new versions of its high tech accessories, as the holiday season approaches.

The iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max feature new, sophisticated lenses and a new and more powerful chip that will give Apple a technical edge over its competitors, as its iconic smartphone loses ground in a global market at home. slow motion.

The apple brand is trying to regain market share with lower prices than before: $ 699 the basic iPhone 11, against 749 for the cheapest model last year, and a watch connected to $ 199 . The iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Max will start at $ 999 and $ 1,099.

But it is mainly focused on diversification in services to maintain its customer base, attract new customers in its ecosystem and try to break its dependence with its cow-milk, the iPhone.

Less than $ 5, Apple TV + is almost half the price of the basic Netflix subscription in the United States and $ 2 below the Disney + subscription price, which Apple has taken by surprise with its date launch.

- "Warning shot" -

"$ 4.99 a month is the highlight of the show +, and a real warning shot against Netflix, Disney and others," enthuses Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush.

The new platform will still struggle against a Netflix pioneer with its very popular original series, Amazon Prime Video and its strong subscriber base on the online trading platform, and the impressive catalog of movies and TV series (Pixar, Marvel ...) from Disney. Not to mention Hulu and soon HBO Max.

Apple TV + will only have a limited offering of original content at launch, but Tim Cook, the group's CEO, has promised to add new, fresh productions every month. And buyers of a new iPad, an iPhone or a computer of the brand will have a bonus of one year subscription to the video platform.

So many ways to strengthen a larger ecosystem of services, but closed: it is to encourage consumers who own a smartphone brand to stay in the Apple environment, both for their purchases of accessories (watch, intelligent speaker ...) for their services (payment, video, music, video games ...).

"With an installed base of 900 million iPhones in service around the world, Tim Cook and Company have a chance to win 100 million subscribers to their streaming service for the next 3-4 years," said Daniel Ives. Netflix has more than 150 million customers.

Apple appreciated 1.18% after the presentation, while Disney (-2.19%), Netflix (-2.16%) and especially Roku (-10.49%) suffered from this announcement.

"Apple just needs a great show for people to adopt Apple TV +," says Patrick Moorhead of Moor Inisghts & Strategy. "I'm more skeptical about games, I can not imagine Apple Arcade could affect Xbox or PlayStation."

- Competition -

Cupertino's grand mass opened with Apple Arcade, a new subscription video gaming platform that will be integrated on September 19th at the App Store, an online application store, in more than 150 countries, for 4.99 dollars per month. Subscribers will have access to more than 100 games reserved for the Apple ecosystem.

In this lucrative sector as in streaming TV, Apple will have to face significant competitors, including Google, which will soon launch Stadia, a platform for real streaming games, without prior download, a radically new operation.

On the core business, the US giant of luxury technologies has focused on photography and video. The iPhone 11 will have a dual lens on the back, the iPhone 11 Pro a triple.

The new chip "A13 Bionic" will provide a computing power tenfold, the batteries will need less often to be recharged and the screens will withstand better shocks and water.

At Apple, for the 5G, it will be necessary to wait for the next range, in 2020. "I think that it will be a problem for China, where it arrives quickly", notes Patrick Moorhead.

© 2019 AFP