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Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook has provided more detail on the company’s strategy behind its Apple TV+ streaming service, noting the company is a “toolmaker” at heart.
“We’re a toolmaker,” Cook told Variety in an interview ahead of the company’s upcoming F1 movie, referring to Apple’s computers, phones, tablets and other products. “We make tools for creative people to empower them to do things they couldn’t do before. So we were doing lots of business with Hollywood well before we were in the TV business.”
Cook continued: “We studied it for years before we decided to do [Apple TV+]. I know there’s a lot of different views out there about why we’re into it. We’re into it to tell great stories, and we want it to be a great business as well. That’s why we’re into it, just plain and simple.”
Despite some speculation that Apple has built its services, in particular Apple TV+, in an effort to sell more devices, Cook refuted that notion.
“I don’t have it in my mind that I’m going to sell more iPhones because of it,” Cook said of the service. “I don’t think about that at all. I think about it as a business. And just like we leverage the best of Apple across iPhones and across our services, we try to leverage the best of Apple TV+.”
F1, which stars Brad Pitt and is set to open at the box office on June 27, is a collaboration between Apple Original Films and Warner Bros. (WBD). It will air in theaters and then eventually released on Apple TV+.
Apple has been heavily marketing the film, including releasing a haptic trailer on Wednesday and incorporating it into the keynote address of its Worldwide Developers Conference.
It was reported in March that Apple TV+, which is part of Apple’s all-important Services division, was closing in on 45M paying subscribers and was losing $1B annually.