Apple gains 165 million subscribers in last year, Cook says Apple is “investing accordingly” to metaverse

In Apple's latest earnings report, Apple reports that it has acquired 165 million subscribers in the past year. Subscribers are included in all consumer services offered by Apple, including iCloud, Music, Arcade, and Apple TV+. Luca Maestri, Apple's CFO and senior vice president, says this growth has been global.

Apple currently has 785 million paid subscribers and has acquired 165 million in the last 12 months.

We set December quarter records in every geographic segment [...] and then as I mentioned earlier, an all-time record for iCloud, for Music, for video, for advertising [and] payment devices. So, we’ve done… better than we were expecting at the beginning of the quarter.” – Luca Maestri, Apple CFO and Senior VP

In the same conversation, Tim Cook, when asked if Apple was involved in the metaverse, replied that Apple was interested and already committed to AR. However, he did not use the word "metaverse" in his answer. “We are an innovator,” Cook says. "There are over 14,000 augmented reality apps on the App Store."

Cook noted that Apple sees great potential in the space of the metaverse and that the company "is investing accordingly." Apple has long been interested in AR since adding LiDAR hardware to the iPhone 12 Pro and later iPad Pro models.