Apple may try to increase revenue by doing…something with third-party AI apps

Apple’s services business remains at record levels, but it’s facing growing pressure. The central part of that business, Apple’s App Store, has faced regulatory pressure and a slump in mobile gaming, which have hurt services growth. However, on Monday’s earnings call, Apple signaled that it may look to boost services revenue through third-party apps.

苹果的服务业务虽然仍处于创纪录水平，但正面临越来越大的压力。作为该业务核心的苹果应用商店（App Store）正遭受监管压力和移动游戏市场下滑的影响，这些因素损害了服务业务的增长。然而，在周一的财报电话会议上，苹果暗示可能会寻求通过第三方应用来提振服务收入。

What does that mean, exactly? Unfortunately, it’s not entirely clear. When discussing how AI could potentially “contribute to revenue growth over time,” Kevan Parekh, Apple’s chief financial officer, said: “On the product side, you know, we feel AI offers a compelling reason for customers to upgrade and switch in order to get the latest capabilities, and we also feel there’s opportunities across third-party apps and partnerships as well as first-party opportunities.”

这究竟意味着什么？遗憾的是，目前尚不完全清楚。在讨论人工智能如何可能“随时间推移为收入增长做出贡献”时，苹果首席财务官凯文·帕雷克（Kevan Parekh）表示：“在产品方面，我们认为人工智能为客户升级和更换设备以获取最新功能提供了令人信服的理由，同时我们也认为在第三方应用、合作伙伴关系以及苹果自有业务方面都存在机会。”

Parekh did not elaborate on what sorts of opportunities might be available via third-party apps. However, Reuters reported Monday that investors are wondering whether Apple could profit by distributing third-party AI agents through the App Store and taking a cut of the revenue they generate.

帕雷克并未详细说明通过第三方应用可能获得哪些类型的机会。不过，路透社周一报道称，投资者正在猜测苹果是否可以通过在应用商店分发第三方人工智能代理，并从中抽取分成来获利。

Regulatory and legal changes have cut into App Store commission revenue in some markets, even as Apple’s services business as a whole continues to grow. Third-party estimates in August, for example, suggested the company had seen an 18% drop in U.S. commission revenue, with declines also in Brazil and Japan after those countries introduced new regulations.

尽管苹果的整体服务业务持续增长，但监管和法律层面的变化已削减了其在部分市场的应用商店佣金收入。例如，8月份的第三方估算显示，在巴西和日本引入新法规后，苹果在这些国家的佣金收入出现下滑，而美国市场的佣金收入则下降了18%。

Apple has traditionally controlled payments within its app marketplace tightly, taking a cut of all App Store transactions. But a lawsuit by Epic Games ultimately forced the company to allow apps to redirect users to outside payment systems. Other legal challenges throughout the world have further hampered the business.

苹果传统上一直严格控制其应用市场内的支付，并对所有应用商店交易进行抽成。但Epic Games发起的一场诉讼最终迫使该公司允许应用将用户引导至外部支付系统。全球范围内的其他法律挑战也进一步阻碍了该业务的发展。

During the earnings call, Parekh referenced Apple’s App Store woes and returned to the idea that the company’s service business could expand into new territory. “We’ve also seen some factors that impacted the performance of the App Store, and during the September quarter, the performance on the App Store was similar to the prior year, and we had a record number of paid subscriptions with double-digit growth for third-party apps on the App Store,” Parekh said.

在财报电话会议上，帕雷克提到了苹果应用商店面临的困境，并重申了公司服务业务可以拓展至新领域的想法。帕雷克表示：“我们也看到了一些影响应用商店表现的因素。在9月份的季度中，应用商店的表现与去年同期持平，我们的付费订阅数量创下历史新高，第三方应用在应用商店中实现了两位数的增长。”

“At the same time, we did see some headwinds in mobile gaming that we’ve talked about before, and expect to see those continue into the summer quarter.” Parekh added: “As we move ahead, we expect services growth to be between 8 to 9% [in the December quarter]. This outlook contemplates our best estimates on sequential headwinds, primarily from third-party licensing and the additional half percentage point of foreign exchange I just mentioned.”

“与此同时，我们确实看到了之前提到过的移动游戏领域的阻力，并预计这些阻力将持续到夏季季度。”帕雷克补充道：“展望未来，我们预计（12月季度）服务业务的增长率将在8%到9%之间。这一展望考虑了我们对后续阻力的最佳估计，主要来自第三方授权以及我刚才提到的额外0.5个百分点的汇率影响。”