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In an earnings statement posted last week, Apple announced that it's Services revenues increased 24% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 over the fourth quarter of 2015. Apple's overall revenues decreased by 9% year-over-year. The Services segment, which includes iBooks in addition to Apple Music and iTunes Movies, among other internet services, saw a setback earlier in 2016: China banned iBooks and iTunes Movies in April, when the country was Apple's second-largest market.
At the time, industry watchers expected the ban to hamper the company's revenues. CEO Tim Cook, however, has said that China's decision has had a very limited effect.
This fall has been rocky for digital publishing : last week, Amazon announced that it's Q3 media revenues, including those gained from e-book sales, were up over a comparable period in 2015. In September, however, Barnes & Noble posted a significant decline overall and a precipitous drop in NOOK sales.
As the holiday-book buying season approaches, and Amazon customers begin to branch-out from the e-books included in their Amazon Prime memberships, the strength of digital will fluctuate. Publishers may utilize the robust Prime program as a marketing tool for their winter promotions or instead focus on print or direct-to-consumer sales.
