Apple Inc.’s big product launch events tend to focus on hardware, but the Show Time presser it held today at its California headquarters took a very different direction.

Chief Executive Tim Cook (pictured) stepped onto the stage of a tightly packed auditorium to introduce a series of new subscription services spanning news, TV and gaming, plus a high-tech credit card that will integrate with the iPhone.

Apple News+

One of the most anticipated — and certainly the most thoroughly leaked — of the services the CEO announced is the $9.99 a month Apple News+. It’s a magazine subscription built into the Apple News app that offers access to more than 300 print and digital publications. The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic and the Los Angeles Times are among the outlets making their content available through the service.

New magazine issues appear in a Flipboardlike catalog that gives publishers the ability to display animated covers. Users can sort content by category, or navigate to a new “Featured” section to view reading recommendations from Apple’s in-house editorial team. A Family Sharing option allows multiple members of a household to use a single subscription without paying extra.

Apple News+ is launching today on iOS and Mac. Initial availability is limited to the U.S and Canada, with the iPhone maker planning to bring the service to Europe and Australia later this year.

Apple-branded TV streaming

Alongside the news subscription, Cook unveiled a revamped version of the Apple TV app that comes with two new streaming services. The first is called Apple TV Channels and will enable consumers to watch content from major TV networks directly in the app’s interface. Launch partners include HBO, Showtime, Starz and CBS All Access.

The other new streaming service coming to the app is debuting under the brand Apple TV+. It will offer original programming from the iPhone maker itself, which has reportedly spent a $1 billion in the past year to produce content for the service. Apple TV+ is set to feature a selection of star-studded titles including a Steven Spielberg reboot of the 1985 Amazing Stories series, a pair of documentaries from Oprah and a romantic-comedy show co-directed by J.J. Abrams.

The company hasn’t released pricing or availability information for the two streaming services. Users can expect them to launch sometime after the planned release of the revamped Apple TV app in March. After initially bringing the app to the Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad, Apple plans to add support for the Mac along with smart TVs from major display makers such as Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire TV is on the list too.

Apple Arcade

Capping off the list of new subscription services is Apple Arcade. For a yet-to-be-announced monthly rate, users will gain access to a new tab in the App Store interface that is slated to offer more than 100 exclusive mobile games. There’ll be a Family Sharing feature similar to the one in Apple News+ that will let players share access to titles.

Apple plans to launch the service sometime in the fall.

Apple Card

Subscriptions aren’t the only way the iPhone maker hopes to grow its increasingly important services business. Alongside the content services, Cook unveiled a new Apple-branded credit card that will link to users’ mobile devices.

The aptly named Apple Card has a sleek titanium exterior with no CVV code, signature or any of the other usual markers. All the relevant information is instead stored in the Wallet app on iOS, where users can also view transactions and see how their spending breaks down by category. Tapping a purchase brings up a map displaying exactly the store where it took place.

Apple hopes to lure consumers by offering 1 to 2 percent cash back on all transactions made with the card. That goes up to 3 percent for purchases involving Apple products. If it gains sufficient traction, the card could potentially help boost the adoption of the company’s Apple Pay payment service, which is expected to serve 10 billion transactions worldwide in 2019.

The Apple Card will be available for order in the U.S. this fall.

What it all means

Analysts were mixed on Apple’s prospects for its services push. “Card has the most impact: Get people by their wallet,” said Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller. “Finance and credit cards are ready to be disrupted.”

Indeed, added Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, “Apple is trying to solve real problems like complexity, security and indebtedness.”

By contrast, Mueller said, media already has been disrupted, and he doesn’t see Apple succeeding in its own produced media. “Throwing money at it never works,” he said, adding that Reese Witherspoon’s and Jennifer Aniston’s morning show reminds him of Katie Couric’s unsuccessful run at Yahoo.

Moorhead noted that one risk Apple faces is the tricky task of creating its own video content. “It’s one thing to redistribute content, but it’s an entirely different proposition altogether to create content,” he said. “With Apple’s No. 1 consumer brand position, all it can do is go down if consumers dislike or are offended by its first-party content.”

Moreover, he wonders how Apple will market to its installed base without antagonizing content partners. “Will there be pop-ups that aren’t allowed by other service providers like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video? Will Apple’s services get top billing in the Store?” he said. “There is sure to be controversy if every content provider isn’t following the same rules.”

Nonetheless, Apple brings potent weapons to the fight, Moorhead said. “The strength of Apple’s new media services offerings aren’t the bundles, first party content or pricing,” he said “The strength is its built-in and focused distribution — a massive number of Apple iPhones, iPads and Apple TVs.” Or as Oprah put it in Cook’s keynote, “They’re in a billion pockets, y’all.”

With reporting from Robert Hof

Photo: Apple/livestream