Apple’s services business now has more than 1B subscribers

Apple’s services business now has more than 1 billion paying subscribers, the company said during its third-quarter results conference call.

The company’s services portfolio comprises iCloud, Music, Fitness+, Pay, Apple Card, and Apple TV+, and it added 150 million subscribers over the past 12 months, the company said.

The tech giant registered $21.2 billion in revenue from services, up 8% from a year earlier. The business accounted for more than 25% of the company’s total revenue in the quarter.

Soccer star Lionel Messi got a special mention from CEO Tim Cook. The Argentinian footballer recently signed up with Inter Miami, and his arrival in the States follows a 10-year exclusive streaming deal between Apple and Major League Soccer. And Messi is reportedly already giving a boost to Apple’s subscription numbers, though it remains to be seen if that trend will keep up.

“Soccer legend Lionel Messi made his debut with Major League Soccer last month, and fans all over the world tuned in with MLS Season Pass,” Cook said.

Earlier this week, Apple said deposits through Apple Card Savings account have crossed $10 billion. The company launched the service in April, offering an APY (annual percentage yield) of 4.15%. In March, the company also launched its Pay Later product after several delays.

The company executives presented a positive outlook for the services business for the current quarter. CFO Luca Maestri said Apple will be able to convert free users in the ecosystem to paid users by presenting a larger portfolio of content.

“I would say the biggest opportunity is that we know that there’s a lot of customers that we have that are very familiar with our ecosystem. They are engaged in the ecosystem. But still today, they’re using only the portion of the ecosystem that is free. And so we think that by offering better content and more content over time, we’re going to be able to attract more of them as paid customers,” he said on the earnings call.