Apple’s biggest mistake over the last 10-12 years was not acquiring Netflix says Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Ives says that acquiring Netflix would have made Apple a much strong competitor against rivals like Disney+, Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video.
“The biggest strategic mistake, in my opinion, from Jobs and Cook over the last 10 to 12 years, is not acquiring Netflix a number of years ago,” said Ives. Other analysts have also pushed Apple to buy Netflix over the years. The mistake, according to Ives, has resulted in Apple having to build Apple TV+ from the ground up.
Apple should have acquired Netflix when it had the chance, according to Dan Ives
We actually do not know how many subscribers Apple TV+ has at the moment since the Cupertino tech giant does not release those statistics. However, we do know that Netflix has over 200 million subscribers and Disney+ is on its way to 100 million just a little over a year after its launch while a recent study by JustWatch revealed that Apple TV+ was only able to capture 3% market share in 2020.
Quoting the aforementioned study, in his interview, Ives suggested that more than half of the current Apple TV+ subscribers are using a free trial to access the content. The same research shows that many of those customers do not plan of resubscribing once their free trial ends.
Ives believes that if Apple does not want to acquire a competitor, it could still buy a studio. Apple already has contracts with multiple studios to bring content to its streaming service, but those deals are not acquisitions. So, even though the company is working with A24 and has just announced a partnership with Skydance Animation, Ives believes buying a studio would be more beneficial.
“We’ve talked about an MGM, a Lionsgate, an A24, otherwise they’re going to continue to sort of be on the outside looking in,” Ives said. “And that’s why I think this is something they’re going to be forced into…because it’s all about content.”
The Wedbush analyst is not the only one who thinks Apple TV+ is not living up to its potential, Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph recently said Apple has “no excuse,” for lagging behind its competitors. Randolph also criticized the tech giant by suggesting that the company should be investing in quality content to get users to pay for the service instead of it being offered as a giveaway.
Apple TV+ does have some hits to offers such as ‘The Morning Show‘, ‘Ted Lasso‘ and ‘Palmer,’ but the streaming service has a long way to go before it can offer viewers an established library as compared to services like Disney+ or Netflix.
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