8 ms·

Apple to acquire digital magazine service Texture

114 points by uptown 9y ago

ProAm 9y ago
Apple might be moving into the era Oracle Corp moved into 15 years ago, where all innovation will occur through acquisition.
- dfee 9y ago
  “Innovation” doesn’t feel like the right term. Texture appears to simply re-package content. In my mind, Apple is buying a “product-owner” to move on it’s greater ambitions (Apple News).
- ksec 9y ago
  That is not entirely true. People have these fantasy where innovation == invention. Apple is the one with the ecosystem and marketing power that brings new invention with value to customers. And mostly with an improved version of the invention. The day Apple make acquisition and brings a poor product or services out is the day they enter Oracle Era. Given how I think Oracle makes ( mostly ) absolutely appalling products I say the day is yet to come and far from happening in near future.
  - catach 9y ago
    > The day Apple make acquisition and brings a poor product or services out is the day they enter Oracle Era. Does Apple Maps count for that? I think a more reasonable standard would be if there was a consistent pattern of making bad choices.
    - ksec 9y ago
      Yes it does, along with Apple Music. Especially on an International Level. But It is improving, just at a very slow pace. May be we just have very high expectation on Apple, so we are always little too critical. And I agree with consistent pattern of bad choices.
  - reaperducer 9y ago
    > The day Apple make acquisition and brings a poor product or services out is the day they enter Oracle Era. What about Siri? /Siri, add ginger ale to my groceries list. // I've added gaming hammer to your groceries list. /Siri, what's the weather? // Here are some web sites I found about "weather."
    - mitchty 9y ago
      So for fun I switched Siri to German and well, no issue whatsoever. Was ist das Wetter heute -> Hier ist die Vorhersage für heute No worries there. Füge Ginger Ale auf meiner Einkaufsliste hinzu -> Du hast keine Liste namens "Einkauf". Soll ich eine erstellen? -> Ja -> Ok, ich habe das zu deiner Liste Einkauf-Liste hinzugefügt. I'm pretty sure I translated grocery list wrong but even with my shit German Siri got me what I was trying to do. I probably should have used https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/Einkaufszettel https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/Einkaufszettel now that I look at it. OOPS.
    - briandear 9y ago
      Hey Siri, play Delta Blues! ..Delta Blues starts playing. Hey Siri, play the first album from T-Bone Burnet. ..and it plays. Play the number one song from 1983.. And Every Breath You Take by The Police starts playing.
      - Nullabillity 9y ago
        "Hey Siri, play Förgätmigej by Raubtier" ..good luck with that one.
    - achompas 9y ago
      I don't like voice assistants, but she's not that bad. When I ask these questions, she asks if I want to create a grocery list (I don't have one) and shows me the 7-day forecast.
- overcast 9y ago
  Let's hope not. Oracle is where innovation goes to die. Their catalog of software is a horrendous maze of interconnected crap. Dealing with that suite nearly brought me to leave my current organization. Mercifully I was moved off that team.
- jhi892asdv3 9y ago
  A chip designing, consumer gadget producing, software development, media distribution company with the amount of cash they have on hand is a bit different beast than "Database company that no one wants to work with, except when forced to by mgmt."
- baxtr 9y ago
  You’re right, Apple is doomed. Again. They always have been
Erlangolem 9y ago
Apple is a fascinating company, with their massive cash reserves they have a lot of options. I feel like they’re exploring banking, publishing in all forms, in addition to their software and hardware ventures. I hope it works out, although I look at the bugs and issues with iOS and MacOS and worry that there is a loss of focus on what makes them Apple in the first place.
- tjwds 9y ago
  I'm honestly surprised with myself for forgetting that iTunes once felt like the go-to place for media; it seems to me like this move is in support of those sorts of endeavors.
uptown 9y ago
One part of Apple's media strategy that's confusing to me is how they brand these things. For instance, how come their exclusive TV programming is branded under Apple Music? How come iTunes is the wrapper for all media ... not just "tunes"? Seems like they'd benefit from rebranding these products as "Apple Media" (or something like that) then have Apple Music, Apple Video, Apple Texture, etc. as sub-brands under Apple Media. Then, offer a sampling of these services for free to owners of Apple hardware (or at a flat annual fee similar to Amazon Prime's bundled services) and offer premium upsells for those that want a more-expansive or unlimited selection of content.
- achompas 9y ago
  Let me take a stab: > how come their exclusive TV programming is branded under Apple Music They're using the programming to market Apple Music subscriptions. Apple wants to enroll new users, then up-sell them on new hardware. Ben Thompson has a great take on this [1]. > How come iTunes is the wrapper for all media ... not just "tunes"? I think this is a legacy issue. iTunes started on music, then gradually expanded to movies, TV, etc. Changing this is hard, though, since iTunes has accumulated over 15 years of brand recognition as Apple's media hub. > as sub-brands under Apple Media Apple Media has no brand recognition among consumers. Sounds like applying an engineer's mindset to a marketing/branding problem. [1] https://stratechery.com/2018/apples-middle-age/ https://stratechery.com/2018/apples-middle-age/
  - wlesieutre 9y ago
    Sounds like they didn't learn the lesson if they're now branding video content under Apple Music just because it launched as a music service first.
  - uptown 9y ago
    "Apple Media has no brand recognition among consumers." True. But Apple Music had no brand recognition when they launched that, and it's only been around since June 8, 2015 when they already had involvement with other forms of media. Why not take that opportunity to rebrand?
reaperducer 9y ago
Finger's crossed for this one. Hopefully this purchase will bolster Apple News. Just yesterday I was wondering if Apple News would be discontinued because Apple seems to have lost interest in it. Which is a shame, because it's probably the best news reader I've encountered. Fast. Versatile. Clean. I'm OK with ads, and the ones in Apple News are very unobtrusive. I just wish there was an Apple News app for the desktop or web, because I don't always want to read on a tiny screen. I have used (and often paid for) lots of magazine and newspaper apps over the last ten years, and most of them have been not great. Some not even good. Some of the publishers have noticed this, and put out their own apps, usually with even worse results. But at least they're not paying someone else to make their brand look terrible. The only one I've found that isn't completely terrible is the New York Times, but even that has its problems.
- 52-6F-62 9y ago
  For the most part Texture doesn't deal with preprod. work for the brands. Like Apple News, the established brands will design their own and publish either print-PDF or custom HTML versions. There is usually infrastructure to streamline that production process. The publishing industry in general widely uses Adobe AEM (& AEM Mobile) to that end. I hope Apple improves upon Texture, personally. They were kind of a closed-off black box. A lot of compatibility work had to be done through trial-and-error. There was no published standard. Apple News was very thorough that way.
- glhaynes 9y ago
  What makes you feel like they've lost interest in Apple News? I don't use the app much at all so I don't have an opinion but I think it just got a visual overhaul with iOS 11, didn't it? I'm always surprised how many of my friends seem to use it a lot. So I've wondered if it might be a dark horse that we'll all eventually realize is a big deal, like iMessage.
  - pducks32 9y ago
    Personally I don't use it much, but then around the Olympics I checked it out and now use it every single day. It's fantastic.
igravious 9y ago
Is this good news or bad news (or no news even) for Blendle? https://launch.blendle.com/ https://launch.blendle.com/ “Discover the best journalism. No paywalls, no ads, just stories you'll love. We're in beta. Reserve your spot.” edit: What the hell is with the downvotes? I only ask because someone on here mentioned that Blendle are in roughly the same business–meaning, as Texture they also claim to offer a "multi-title subscription service giving users the ability to instantly access some of the most widely read magazines while on the go"
- dep_b 9y ago
  My first thought too. And since services like Blendle lean heavily on iOS for generating money I think it's probably bad news for them. But at least they had a great time playing with their investors money while they were growing ;) https://twitter.com/alexandernl/status/585415710546993153 https://twitter.com/alexandernl/status/585415710546993153
robmccoll 9y ago
Any chance they will continue to support non-Apple platforms?
garyclarke27 9y ago
Hopefully Apple will turn Apple News into a News spotify. I would happily pay a subscription - say 2 tiers light <2> heavy (hr pw) $10 / $20 pm - with the subs shared amoungst content providers based on time spent reading. I subscribe to several now such as FT, Economist, Times. Expensive and a real pain though, having multiple subs so I may drop them soon, an aggregated sub would be so much better. Apple News would be an excellent platform for this, I love it’s layout, quality and Font size controls. I tried Readly App it’s reader is truly awfull based on pdf version of paper mags so you have to pan and scan and scroll all the time.
Sonnol53 9y ago
Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook eating up every business
5_minutes 9y ago
At least it’s Apple, so chances are they will do something useful with it. Google could’ve bought it and shut it down.

114 points by uptown 9y ago

Apple might be moving into the era Oracle Corp moved into 15 years ago, where all innovation will occur through acquisition.

dfee 9y ago
“Innovation” doesn’t feel like the right term. Texture appears to simply re-package content. In my mind, Apple is buying a “product-owner” to move on it’s greater ambitions (Apple News).
ksec 9y ago
That is not entirely true. People have these fantasy where innovation == invention. Apple is the one with the ecosystem and marketing power that brings new invention with value to customers. And mostly with an improved version of the invention. The day Apple make acquisition and brings a poor product or services out is the day they enter Oracle Era. Given how I think Oracle makes ( mostly ) absolutely appalling products I say the day is yet to come and far from happening in near future.
- catach 9y ago
  > The day Apple make acquisition and brings a poor product or services out is the day they enter Oracle Era. Does Apple Maps count for that? I think a more reasonable standard would be if there was a consistent pattern of making bad choices.
  - ksec 9y ago
    Yes it does, along with Apple Music. Especially on an International Level. But It is improving, just at a very slow pace. May be we just have very high expectation on Apple, so we are always little too critical. And I agree with consistent pattern of bad choices.
- reaperducer 9y ago
  > The day Apple make acquisition and brings a poor product or services out is the day they enter Oracle Era. What about Siri? /Siri, add ginger ale to my groceries list. // I've added gaming hammer to your groceries list. /Siri, what's the weather? // Here are some web sites I found about "weather."
  - mitchty 9y ago
    So for fun I switched Siri to German and well, no issue whatsoever. Was ist das Wetter heute -> Hier ist die Vorhersage für heute No worries there. Füge Ginger Ale auf meiner Einkaufsliste hinzu -> Du hast keine Liste namens "Einkauf". Soll ich eine erstellen? -> Ja -> Ok, ich habe das zu deiner Liste Einkauf-Liste hinzugefügt. I'm pretty sure I translated grocery list wrong but even with my shit German Siri got me what I was trying to do. I probably should have used https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/Einkaufszettel https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/Einkaufszettel now that I look at it. OOPS.
  - briandear 9y ago
    Hey Siri, play Delta Blues! ..Delta Blues starts playing. Hey Siri, play the first album from T-Bone Burnet. ..and it plays. Play the number one song from 1983.. And Every Breath You Take by The Police starts playing.
    - Nullabillity 9y ago
      "Hey Siri, play Förgätmigej by Raubtier" ..good luck with that one.
  - achompas 9y ago
    I don't like voice assistants, but she's not that bad. When I ask these questions, she asks if I want to create a grocery list (I don't have one) and shows me the 7-day forecast.
overcast 9y ago
Let's hope not. Oracle is where innovation goes to die. Their catalog of software is a horrendous maze of interconnected crap. Dealing with that suite nearly brought me to leave my current organization. Mercifully I was moved off that team.
jhi892asdv3 9y ago
A chip designing, consumer gadget producing, software development, media distribution company with the amount of cash they have on hand is a bit different beast than "Database company that no one wants to work with, except when forced to by mgmt."
baxtr 9y ago
You’re right, Apple is doomed. Again. They always have been

Erlangolem 9y ago

Apple is a fascinating company, with their massive cash reserves they have a lot of options. I feel like they’re exploring banking, publishing in all forms, in addition to their software and hardware ventures. I hope it works out, although I look at the bugs and issues with iOS and MacOS and worry that there is a loss of focus on what makes them Apple in the first place.

tjwds 9y ago
I'm honestly surprised with myself for forgetting that iTunes once felt like the go-to place for media; it seems to me like this move is in support of those sorts of endeavors.

uptown 9y ago

One part of Apple's media strategy that's confusing to me is how they brand these things. For instance, how come their exclusive TV programming is branded under Apple Music? How come iTunes is the wrapper for all media ... not just "tunes"? Seems like they'd benefit from rebranding these products as "Apple Media" (or something like that) then have Apple Music, Apple Video, Apple Texture, etc. as sub-brands under Apple Media. Then, offer a sampling of these services for free to owners of Apple hardware (or at a flat annual fee similar to Amazon Prime's bundled services) and offer premium upsells for those that want a more-expansive or unlimited selection of content.

achompas 9y ago
Let me take a stab: > how come their exclusive TV programming is branded under Apple Music They're using the programming to market Apple Music subscriptions. Apple wants to enroll new users, then up-sell them on new hardware. Ben Thompson has a great take on this [1]. > How come iTunes is the wrapper for all media ... not just "tunes"? I think this is a legacy issue. iTunes started on music, then gradually expanded to movies, TV, etc. Changing this is hard, though, since iTunes has accumulated over 15 years of brand recognition as Apple's media hub. > as sub-brands under Apple Media Apple Media has no brand recognition among consumers. Sounds like applying an engineer's mindset to a marketing/branding problem. [1] https://stratechery.com/2018/apples-middle-age/ https://stratechery.com/2018/apples-middle-age/
- wlesieutre 9y ago
  Sounds like they didn't learn the lesson if they're now branding video content under Apple Music just because it launched as a music service first.
- uptown 9y ago
  "Apple Media has no brand recognition among consumers." True. But Apple Music had no brand recognition when they launched that, and it's only been around since June 8, 2015 when they already had involvement with other forms of media. Why not take that opportunity to rebrand?

reaperducer 9y ago

Finger's crossed for this one. Hopefully this purchase will bolster Apple News. Just yesterday I was wondering if Apple News would be discontinued because Apple seems to have lost interest in it. Which is a shame, because it's probably the best news reader I've encountered. Fast. Versatile. Clean. I'm OK with ads, and the ones in Apple News are very unobtrusive. I just wish there was an Apple News app for the desktop or web, because I don't always want to read on a tiny screen. I have used (and often paid for) lots of magazine and newspaper apps over the last ten years, and most of them have been not great. Some not even good. Some of the publishers have noticed this, and put out their own apps, usually with even worse results. But at least they're not paying someone else to make their brand look terrible. The only one I've found that isn't completely terrible is the New York Times, but even that has its problems.

52-6F-62 9y ago
For the most part Texture doesn't deal with preprod. work for the brands. Like Apple News, the established brands will design their own and publish either print-PDF or custom HTML versions. There is usually infrastructure to streamline that production process. The publishing industry in general widely uses Adobe AEM (& AEM Mobile) to that end. I hope Apple improves upon Texture, personally. They were kind of a closed-off black box. A lot of compatibility work had to be done through trial-and-error. There was no published standard. Apple News was very thorough that way.
glhaynes 9y ago
What makes you feel like they've lost interest in Apple News? I don't use the app much at all so I don't have an opinion but I think it just got a visual overhaul with iOS 11, didn't it? I'm always surprised how many of my friends seem to use it a lot. So I've wondered if it might be a dark horse that we'll all eventually realize is a big deal, like iMessage.
- pducks32 9y ago
  Personally I don't use it much, but then around the Olympics I checked it out and now use it every single day. It's fantastic.

igravious 9y ago

Is this good news or bad news (or no news even) for Blendle? https://launch.blendle.com/ https://launch.blendle.com/ “Discover the best journalism. No paywalls, no ads, just stories you'll love. We're in beta. Reserve your spot.” edit: What the hell is with the downvotes? I only ask because someone on here mentioned that Blendle are in roughly the same business–meaning, as Texture they also claim to offer a "multi-title subscription service giving users the ability to instantly access some of the most widely read magazines while on the go"

dep_b 9y ago
My first thought too. And since services like Blendle lean heavily on iOS for generating money I think it's probably bad news for them. But at least they had a great time playing with their investors money while they were growing ;) https://twitter.com/alexandernl/status/585415710546993153 https://twitter.com/alexandernl/status/585415710546993153

robmccoll 9y ago

Any chance they will continue to support non-Apple platforms?

garyclarke27 9y ago

Hopefully Apple will turn Apple News into a News spotify. I would happily pay a subscription - say 2 tiers light <2> heavy (hr pw) $10 / $20 pm - with the subs shared amoungst content providers based on time spent reading. I subscribe to several now such as FT, Economist, Times. Expensive and a real pain though, having multiple subs so I may drop them soon, an aggregated sub would be so much better. Apple News would be an excellent platform for this, I love it’s layout, quality and Font size controls. I tried Readly App it’s reader is truly awfull based on pdf version of paper mags so you have to pan and scan and scroll all the time.

Sonnol53 9y ago

Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook eating up every business

5_minutes 9y ago

At least it’s Apple, so chances are they will do something useful with it. Google could’ve bought it and shut it down.