Carpool Karaoke helped Apple revenue climb 34% last quarter

Apple’s services division – which includes iTunes and Apple Music – has generated record revenue of US$8.5 billion in the quarter ending September 30.

This equals a 34% rise from the same Q4 period in 2016and seen by the company as fuelled by subscriptions increasing by 75% year-on-year.

The division, led by Senior Vice President Eddy Cue, announced in September that it reached 30 million subscribers

Last year Apple CEO Tim Cook announced a target for the division to double its annual revenue by 2020.

On an earnings call with investors, Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that the rise of subscriptions was due to the company ramping up its original content.

Over the northern summer, it launched programs as Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke on Apple Music.

It’s put aside a reported $1 billion to create more content and hired TV veterans Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht to head the new worldwide video programming division.

Their first is a reboot of Steven Spielberg’s fantasy, horror, and science fiction Amazing Stories which aired from 1985-87 series on NBC. It won five Emmys but did not attract more than a cult following – something which would now work in its favour with streaming audiences.

The 10-episode order for the series (with a $5 million budget for each episode) is part of a new content deal between Spielberg’s Amblin, Apple, and Universal TV.

Speculation is that Spielberg won’t be interested in just being part of Apple’s music value-added and will probably push for Apple to set up a stand-alone video-centric division.

Aside from the content and services business, Apple investors will also be looking at the performance of the new $1000 iPhone X which has put it in the high-end smartphone market and whose full impact will be felt next quarter,

In Q3, the tech giant generated revenue of $52.6 billion, up 12% in July to September.

Of this, iPhones generated sales of $28.9 billion after selling a total 46.7 million sets.

Macs accounted for $7.2 billion, iPads $4.8 billion.

Apple is estimating between $84 billion and $87 billion in revenue in that next quarter which covers Christmas spending with iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple TV 4K added to the products line.